The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, participates in a breakfast meeting with journalists at the Planalto Palace on April 6, 2023. Photo: Mateus Bonomi/AGIF.
In an official bulletin issued Wednesday, May 29, the Brazilian government assigned its former ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, a new position as special representative of Brazil at the Special Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva.
The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed that it will not appoint another person to the position of Brazilian ambassador to the Israeli entity. The announcement further degrades relations between the two countries in response to the Israeli genocide in Palestine.
The Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv will be headed by Chargé d’Affaires Fábio Farias, a diplomatic hierarchy below that of an ambassador, evidencing a downgrade in the diplomatic relations between Brazil and the Zionist state.
The background
Meyer was recalled for consultations by his government after Brazil and the Israeli colony exchanged harsh statements in February due to the Zionist state’s indiscriminate bombing of Palestinians in Gaza. Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in this campaign, most of them women and children. “There were no conditions for him [Meyer] to return” to the Zionist colony, a source said Wednesday.
Then, Lula declared that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel with other historical moments,” and added that “in fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” in reference to Nazi war crimes during World War II.
Following his comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that the Brazilian president would not be welcome in the Zionist colony until he retracted his comments.
“We will not forget nor forgive,” said Katz. “It is a serious antisemitic attack. In my name, and in the name of the citizens of ‘Israel,’ tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in ‘Israel’ until he recants,” Katz said to the Brazilian ambassador on a TV program. Brazilian ambassador Meyer was then called for consultations in the Brazilian capital and has not since returned to Tel Aviv.
Zionist lobby attacks Brazilian government
Recently, a Zionist lobby entity, the Brazilian Confederation of Israel (CONIB), complained about the Lula administration’s unwillingness to condemn Iran’s retaliatory strikes attack against the Israeli entity.
“The democratic world and several Middle Eastern countries have joined Israel in condemning and fighting against Iran’s attack,” but “Brazil’s current foreign policy chose to side with the Iranian theocracy, deviating once again from our historical diplomatic line of condemning attacks of this type, wrote the president of CONIB, Claudio Lottenberg. “Unfortunate.”
Iran’s strike on the Zionist colony was carried out in retaliation for the illegal and unprecedented Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.
After the Iranian attack on Israel was confirmed, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement in which it expressed “concern” and support for efforts by the international community to prevent an escalation.
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
