Palestine state recalls Brazil ambassador
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made comments about the Palestinians’ response to the opening of a new business office in Jerusalem by Brazil. “It’s their right to complain,” he said today (Apr. 1).
Bolsonaro is in Israel on an official trip and yesterday (Mar. 31) announced the creation of a new diplomatic building for commerce in the country.
After the announcement, the Palestinian state called back its ambassador to Brazil Ibrahim Alzeben for consultation and to study a reaction to the move by the Brazilian government.
Location
Brazil’s embassy in Israel is located in Tel Aviv and the Bolsonaro istration has considered moving it to Jerusalem. This change, Bolsonaro said, should not be hastily implemented, and should be constantly made with other countries.
“What I want is that Israel’s autonomy be respected. If negotiations with Israel started today, the embassy would be in Jerusalem. Now, I don’t mean to offend anyone, but we want our autonomy to be respected,” he said.
The city of Jerusalem lies in the center of conflicts and disputes between Palestinians and Israelis, as both claim the place as holy. In order to prevent the situation from aggravating, countries regard Tel Viv as Israel’s istrative capital, where international diplomatic offices are located.
Stages
In Brazil, acting President Hamilton Mourão said that opening up a Brazilian office in Jerusalem does not mean Brazil recognizes the city as capital. “It’s something that doesn’t have anything to do with diplomacy. We can even see it as an intermediate step towards the original decision to relocate the embassy.”
Regarding the decision of the Palestinian state to call back its ambassador, Mourão said it is a form of diplomatic pressure, adding that the diplomat should come back after the consultation.
“Once the Arab countries, especially Palestinians, understand the reach of this decision—which does not change our diplomatic vision regarding the need for Palestinians and Israelis to co-exist peacefully in that region, as Brazil has advocated since 1947—as soon they understand it, we will no longer have problems,” he said.
