Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will visit Israel next month, where he will attend the Celebrate the Faces of Israel event hosted by The Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem on April 27.

DeSantis will deliver the keynote address at the event. DeSantis has been critical of U.S. President Joe Biden's stance towards Israel, and in a press release regarding the trip, he said that Florida is "a bridge" between Americans and Israelis.

"At a time of unnecessarily strained relations between Jerusalem and Washington, Florida serves as a bridge between the American and Israeli people," DeSantis said.

DeSantis is expected to be a top contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite the fact that he has not announced his candidacy.

Polls indicate that DeSantis enjoys significant Republican support, coming in second after Former President Donald Trump. A poll by USA Today in December found that DeSantis would defeat Biden in a match-up, while the same poll indicated Trump would narrowly lose to Biden. Trump's polling numbers have improved since then.

There is a longstanding tradition of Republican presidential contenders visiting Israel. Israel continues to be an important factor for many Republican voters, and likely will continue to be, especially after a recent poll showed that many Democrats are now more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than to Israel.

DeSantis came to Israel in 2019 with a Florida trade mission, where he met with Israeli business leaders, military representatives and defense firms, and received an Honorary Fellowship Award from Ariel University in Samaria.

On that trip, DeSantis signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Ariel University and Florida Atlantic University, and another MoU between Space Florida and the Israel Space Agency. Ahead of that trip, DeSantis promised "to be the most pro-Israel governor in America."

DeSantis has continued to be an outspoken proponent of Israel throughout his term as governor. In 2021, he told Forbes that "demonization of Israel" is causing a rise in anti-Semitic events. Earlier this year, when addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition, DeSantis said that Judea and Samaria are "not occupied territory."

"I don't care what the State Department says. They are not occupied territory, it is disputed territory. You gotta know the history," DeSantis told the crowd.

This article originally appeared on All Israel News and is reposted with permission.