Brazil recalled its ambassador to Israel and said it would not withdraw statements that the Israeli government describes as “anti-Semitic” as the row between the two countries intensified this week.
On Sunday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva compared Israel’s war on Gaza, in which nearly 30,000 Palestinians were killed, to to the Holocaust, arousing the indignation of Israel.
Israel declared Lula persona non grata on Monday, summoning Brazil’s ambassador and demanding that Brasilia retract his statements. In exchange, Brazil summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brasilia on Monday for a remediation, while also recalling its envoy to Tel Aviv.
The tensions mark the latest chapter in a relationship between two countries more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) apart but linked by a history dating back to the creation of Israel.
What has been Brazil’s position on the war so far?
Brazil denounced the October 7 attacks against Israel, carried out by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, during which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 people taken hostage.
However, the country has also spoken out on the war on Gaza, condemning Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure. Lula said last year that the deaths of thousands of children “are particularly shocking.”
In the United Nations Security Council, of which it is a non-permanent member, Brazil has supported every resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, although the United States has vetoed these measures.
In November, after Israel finally allowed a number of foreigners, dual nationals and Palestinian patients to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Brazilians were initially missing from the daily lists, sparking criticism. speculation that Israel was punishing Brazil for its diplomatic positions. Israel rejected these suggestions.
When the repatriation flights to Brazil finally began, Lula was on the tarmac at Brasilia airport to greet the Brazilian Palestinians as they landed.
For decades, Brazil has called for the creation of a Palestinian state on the borders that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, during which Israel seized the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem. East.
Have Brazil and Israel always had tense relations?
Not really. In fact, Brazil played a role in the creation of Israel.
Brazil was president of the United Nations General Assembly in November 1947, when the UN’s partition plan for Palestine was first presented to the body, and it played an important role in the adoption of the plan. The partition plan recommended the creation of a Jewish state in British-administered Mandatory Palestine.
Oswaldo Aranha, former Brazilian foreign minister and head of the country’s delegation to the United Nations, chaired the General Assembly and played a key role in discussions on the partition plan. According to Gerson Menandro Garcia de Freitas, former Brazilian ambassador to Israel, Aranha realized on the day of the initial vote that the project did not have sufficient support, so he cajoled the speakers to extend their speeches. and ran out of time, ultimately delaying the vote by two days, by which time enough votes had been obtained for the creation of Israel. Today, Tel Aviv and Beersheba have streets named after Aranha, and Jerusalem has a public square named in honor of the Brazilian diplomat.
Brazil was also one of the first countries to officially recognize the State of Israel in 1949.
More than 100,000 Jews live in Brazil, making it the second largest Jewish community in Latin America.
Relations between Brazil and Israel reached new heights under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who proclaimed Brazil as Israel’s best friend. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Bolsonaro when he was president-elect in 2018, the Israeli leader received a national award previously given to Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
Bolsonaro then sparked controversy when he announced he might move Brazil’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following a similar decision by the United States. During his 2019 trip to Israel, Bolsonaro visited the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, with Netanyahu. It lies in Israeli-occupied territory in Jerusalem and is also known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, the third holiest site in Islam. During this trip, Bolsonaro chose to announce a non-diplomatic trade mission to the city rather than a full-fledged embassy.
What other declines have there been in relationships?
The current crisis is not the first time that Brazil and Israel have seen their relations deteriorate.
In 2014, Brazil – then under the protection of Lula, President Dilma Roussef – criticized Israeli violence against the Palestinians and recalled its ambassador for diplomatic negotiations. The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson responded by calling Brazil a “diplomatic dwarf,” further escalating tensions.
That wasn’t all. The spokesperson taunted Brazil over its embarrassing 7-1 defeat at the hands – or feet, rather – of Germany in the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup, which Brazil was hosting. The Israeli attack on Gaza that year, he said, was “proportionate.” What was “disproportionate”, he said, was the score in the semi-finals.
Brazil, alongside 28 other countries, voted in favor of a UN Human Rights Council investigation into allegations of human rights violations by Israel during the offensive. An estimated 2,000 civilians were killed in this war.
In November last year, Israel angered Brazilian authorities when its foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, publicly said it had helped Brasilia dismantle a Hezbollah network that was planning attacks in the South American country. South. Mossad linked the planned attacks to the ongoing war in Gaza, suggesting that the lives of Jews in Brazil were under threat.
Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino did not deny this aid, but apparently reprimanded that “Brazil is a sovereign country” and that there are “no orders of foreign force around the federal police Brazilian”.
