https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9765-5131
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Abstract
This essay examines Brazil’s foreign policy approach toward Palestine and Israel by comparing the administrations of Presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva. In outlining elements of continuity and discontinuity between them, the essay argues that it is necessary to examine Brazil’s strategic diplomacy regarding Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and its brutal attacks on Palestinians in light of key structural changes that have occurred in Brazil. These include the growth of the agribusiness sector and the Evangelical Church, both of which have significant influence over the foreign policy choices of successive Brazilian presidential administrations, regardless of their political or ideological leanings. As a result, as this essay shows, neither Bolsonaro nor Lula could fully implement their stated agendas toward Palestine and Israel; indeed, despite the latter’s defense of a two-state solution, this will not translate into punitive measures against Israel, especially given the international permissiveness of Israeli crimes.
Notes
1 Hussein Kalout and Feliciano Guimarães, “The Restoration of Brazilian Foreign Policy: How Lula Can Make Up for Lost Time,” Foreign Affairs, March 15, 2023, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/south-america/restoration-brazilian-foreign-policy.
2 Bolsonaro’s controversial views on topics such as climate change and the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine resulted in policies like the suspension of the Amazon Fund and delay in purchasing vaccines when Brazil faced alarming infection and death rates related to the pandemic. The Brazilian government created the Amazon Fund in 2009 to raise donations for non-reimbursable investments in efforts to prevent, monitor, and combat deforestation, as well as to promote preservation and sustainable use in the Brazilian Amazon. See Brazil’s True Believers: Bolsonaro and the Risks of an Election Year, International Crisis Group, June 16, 2022, https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/brazil/brazils-true-believers-bolsonaro-and-risks-election-year; Hussein Kalout, “Bolsonaro’s Failed Diplomacy Leaves Brazil Isolated as Pandemic Rages,” Foreign Policy, July 7, 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/07/bolsonaro-failed-diplomacy-brazil-isolated-coronavirus/.
3 Kalout and Guimarães, “The Restoration of Brazilian Foreign Policy.”
4 Kalout and Guimarães, “The Restoration of Brazilian Foreign Policy.”
5 “‘May God Bless Brazil and Israel’: Michelle Bolsonaro Wears Israel T-shirt during Vote,” New Arab, October 31, 2022, https://www.newarab.com/news/michelle-bolsonaro-wears-israel-shirt-during-brazil-vote.
6 “Brazil’s Bolsonaro Begins Israel Visit with Embassy Decision Pending,” Reuters, March 31, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/israel-brazil-idUKL8N21I08O/.
7 Anthony Boadle, “Bolsonaro busca aproximação com países Árabes após polêmica sobre embaixada em Israel,” Reuters, October 25, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1X41P2/.
8 Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (New York: Macmillan, 2020); Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (London: Oneworld Publications, 2007); Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (New York: Vintage Books, 1992).
9 “Brazil Grain Outlook,” Miller, January 9, 2023, https://millermagazine.com/blog/brazil-grain-outlook-4940.
10 Constanza Valdes, “Brazil’s Momentum as a Global Agricultural Supplier Faces Headwinds,” US Department of Agriculture, September 27, 2022, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2022/september/brazil-s-momentum-as-a-global-agricultural-supplier-faces-headwinds/.
11 “Exports of the Agribusiness in Brazil in 2022, by Product Category,” Statista, June 20, 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1176694/export-value-agribusiness-brazil-category/#:∼:text=In%202022%2C%20exports%20of%20soybean,exports%20totaled%209.2%20billion%20dollars.
12 Called “Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária” in Portuguese.
13 Hugo Souza, “PL compõe 1/4 da bancada ruralista na câmara, que chega a 300 deputados,” De Olho nos Ruralistas (blog), April 26, 2023, https://deolhonosruralistas.com.br/2023/04/26/pl-compoe-1-4-da-bancada-ruralista-na-camara-que-chega-a-300-deputados/.
14 Pedro Henrique Gomes, Guilherme Mazui, and Filipe Matoso, “Com Viagem à China, Lula busca ampliar relações e marcar nova fase da política externa brasileira,” G1, March 21, 2023, https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2023/03/21/com-viagem-a-china-lula-busca-ampliar-relacoes-e-marcar-nova-fase-da-politica-externa-brasileira.ghtml.
15 Guilherme Waltenberg and Paulo Silva Pinto, “Brasil amplia exportações para Árabes e Israelenses,” Poder360, August 21, 2022, https://www.poder360.com.br/economia/brasil-amplia-exportacoes-para-arabes-e-israelenses/; “Brazil Exports to Iran,” Trading Economics, accessed December 19, 2023, https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/exports-to-iran#:∼:text=Exports%20to%20Iran%20in%20Brazil%20averaged%20103.21%20USD%20Million%20from,source%3A%20Mdic%2C%20Brazil.
16 Ali Saifi, “Brazil Is the Biggest Halal Food Supplier in All over the World,” BBM, July 6, 2022, https://magazinebbm.com/blog/brazil-is-the-biggest-halal-food-supplierin-all-over-the-world-2266.
17 Adam Hanieh, Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 267.
18 John Benny, “UAE’s Investments in Brazil Reach $5 Billion,” The National, April 16, 2023, https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/04/16/uaes-investments-in-brazil-reach-5-billion/.
19 Ana Mano, “Brazil’s BRF Formalizes Halal Joint Venture as Ties with Saudi Arabia Strengthen,” Reuters, August 2, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/brazils-brf-formalizes-halal-jv-ties-with-saudi-arabia-strengthen-2023-08-02/.
20 Guilherme Casarões and Tullo Vigevani. “O lugar de Israel e da Palestina na política externa Brasileira: Antissemitismo, voto majoritário ou promotor de paz?,” História (São Paulo) 33, no. 2 (July–December 2014): 150–88, https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-43692014000200009.
21 “Brazil Exports to Israel,” Trading Economics, accessed December 19, 2023, https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/exports/israel.
22 “Brazil Exports to Palestine,” Trading Economics, accessed December 19, 2023, https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/exports/palestine.
23 “Israel Signs Free-Trade Pact with Mercosur,” Haaretz, December 19, 2007, https://www.haaretz.com/2007-12-19/ty-article/israel-signs-free-trade-pact-with-mercosur/0000017f-dbdc-d3ff-a7ff-fbfc792d0000.
24 Mustafa C. Özşahin and Segâh Tekin, “Israel’s Latin America Policy: A Reappraisal,” Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 14, no. 2 (2020): 243, https://doi.org/10.1080/23739770.2020.1804124.
25 Özşahin and Tekin, “Israel’s Latin America Policy,” 243.
26 Erella Grassiani and Frank Müller, “Brazil-Israel Relations and the Marketing of Urban Security Expertise,” Latin American Perspectives 46, no. 3: 124, https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19831442.
27 Grassiani and Müller, “Brazil-Israel Relations,” 125.
28 Grassiani and Müller, “Brazil-Israel Relations,” 124.
29 Grassiani and Müller, “Brazil-Israel Relations,” 114.
30 Rafaela E. Fioreze, “The Brazilian Position in the United Nations on the Situation in Syria (2011): A Perspective from Brazil’s Foreign Policy under Dilma Rousseff,” Universidade federal da paraíba, 2011, https://periodicos.ufpb.br/index.php/ricri/article/download/51301/34843/174784.
31 “Security Council Fails to Adopt Draft Resolution Condemning Syria’s Crackdown on Anti-government Protestors, Owing to Veto by Russian Federation, China,” United Nations, October 4, 2011, https://press.un.org/en/2011/sc10403.doc.htm.
32 Dan Williams, “Brazil Opens Israel Trade Mission in Jerusalem, Short of Full Embassy Move,” Reuters, March 31, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-brazil-idUKKCN1RC093/.
33 “Brazil Exports to Israel,” Trading Economics.
34 Ana Mano, “Brazil Exports to Arab Nations Hit 33-Year High, Agro Products Prevail,” Reuters, January 19, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/brazil-exports-arab-nations-hit-33-year-high-agro-products-prevail-2023-01-19/#:∼:text=Commodities-,Brazil%20exports%20to%20Arab%20nations%20hit,year%20high%2C%20agro%20products%20prevail&text=SAO%20PAULO%2C%20Jan%2019%20(Reuters,of%20Commerce%20said%20on%20Thursday.
35 Deborah Bizarria, “Igreja evangélica foi a maior perdedora das eleições,” Folha de S.Paulo, November 27, 2022, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/opiniao/2022/11/igreja-evangelica-foi-a-maior-perdedora-das-eleicoes.shtml; Michael Stott, “Brazil’s Evangelical Church Preaches the Bolsonaro Revolution,” Financial Times, December 16, 2019, https://www.ft.com/content/e7a47196-1817-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385.
36 Joseph Williams, “The Pentecostalization of Christian Zionism,” Church History 84, no. 1 (2015): 178, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640714001747.
37 José E. D. Alves, “Projeções indicam que evangélicos serão maioria no Brasil nos próximos dez anos,” #Colabora (blog), May 30, 2022, https://projetocolabora.com.br/ods16/transicao-religiosa-evangelicos-serao-maioria-nos-proximos-dez-anos/.
38 “Bancada evangélica define Eli Borges como novo líder em 2023,” Carta Capital, February 8, 2023, https://www.cartacapital.com.br/politica/bancada-evangelica-define-eli-borges-como-novo-lider-em-2023/.
39 Özşahin and Tekin, “Israel’s Latin America Policy,” 243.
40 Ernesto Araújo, “Exposição do ministro ministro das relações exteriors: Embaixador Ernesto Araújo na comissão de relações exteriors e defesa nacional do senado,” Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, March 5, 2020, https://www.funag.gov.br/images/2020/NovaPoliticaExterna/7_Ernesto_CREDN.pdf (translation from Portuguese provided by the author).
41 Ernesto Araújo, A nova política externa Brasileira (Brasília: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, 2019), 26.
42 Araújo, A nova política externa Brasileira, 171.
43 Araújo, A nova política externa Brasileira, 171.
44 Leslie E. Wehner, “Stereotyped Images and Role Dissonance in the Foreign Policy of Right-Wing Populist Leaders,” Cooperation and Conflict 58, no. 3 (2023): 10, https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367221108814.
45 Valerie Hudson and Benjamin Day, Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019), 31.
46 Eliane Oliveira, “Agronegócio quer salvar relação com a China, após acusações de espionagem de Eduardo Bolsonaro,” O Globo, November 26, 2020, https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/agronegocio-quer-salvar-relacao-com-china-apos-acusacoes-de-espionagem-de-eduardo-bolsonaro-24766813.
47 Bloomberg, “Brazil’s Vice-President Hamilton Mourao Heads to China to Mend Ties,” South China Morning Post, May 19, 2019, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3010824/brazils-vice-president-hamilton-mourao-heads-china-mend.
48 “Arab League Warns Brazil Not to Move Embassy to Jerusalem,” Al Jazeera, December 11, 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/11/arab-league-warns-brazil-not-to-move-embassy-to-jerusalem; Reuters, “Brazil Risks Middle East Trade with Potential Israel Embassy Move,” Haaretz, November 13, 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/2018-11-13/ty-article/brazil-risks-middle-east-trade-with-potential-israel-embassy-move/0000017f-db2a-db22-a17f-ffbb5d5d0001.
49 Joseph S. Nye Jr., Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), xii.
50 Nye, Presidential Leadership, 11.
51 BRICS countries include Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In a meeting in August 2023, the collective started a movement of expansion by inviting Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to join.
52 Andreia Verdélio, “Lula e Macron conversam sobre acordo entre Mercosul e União Europeia,” Agência Brasil, June 23, 2023, https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/noticia/2023-06/lula-e-macron-conversam-sobre-acordo-entre-mercosul-e-uniao-europeia.
53 “Brazil’s Lula Calls for ‘Peace Group’ to Broker Ukraine-Russia Deal,” Reuters, April 16, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/brazils-lula-calls-peace-group-broker-ukraine-russia-deal-2023-04-16/.
54 Kalout and Guimarães, “The Restoration of Brazilian Foreign Policy.”
55 Kyeld Jakobsen, A política externa do partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) (São Paulo: Fundação Perseu Abramo, 2021), https://fpabramo.org.br/publicacoes/estante/a-politica-externa-do-partido-dos-trabalhadores-pt/.
56 Jakobsen, A política externa do partido, 41; Casarões and Vigevani, “O lugar de Israel e da Palestina.”
57 Jakobsen, A política externa do partido, 57.
58 Adar Primor, “Brazil Leader Talks Mideast Peace, How to Be Friends with Both Israel and Iran,” Haaretz, March 11, 2010, https://www.haaretz.com/2010-03-11/ty-article/brazil-leader-talks-mideast-peace-how-to-be-friends-with-both-israel-and-iran/0000017f-db39-db22-a17f-ffb96ec10000.
59 Celso Amorim, “Brazilian Foreign Policy under President Lula (2003–2010),” Revista Brasileira De Política Internacional 53 (December 2010): 236, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-73292010000300013.
60 Amorim, “Brazilian Foreign Policy,” 216.
61 Özşahin and Tekin, “Israel’s Latin America Policy,” 248. Lula and Dilma Rousseff belong to the Workers’ Party and Michel Temer to the MDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement). Temer was an ally of the Workers’ Party until December 2015, when he openly stated his dissatisfaction with Rousseff. Temer, who was Rousseff’s vice president, became president in the aftermath of Rousseff’s impeachment in 2016.
62 Marsílea Gombata, “Comércio com Israel aposta em tecnologia para crescer,” Valor Ecônomico, August 21, 2023, https://valor.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2023/08/21/comercio-com-israel-aposta-em-tecnologia-para-crescer.ghtml.
63 Gombata, “Comércio com Israel.”
64 Find the joint statement (in Spanish) in the following link: https://www.cancilleria.gob.ar/es/actualidad/noticias/declaracion-conjunta-con-motivo-de-la-visita-oficial-la-republica-argentina-del.
65 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of Argentina, “Comunicado conjunto de los gobiernos de Argentina, Brasil, Chile y México sobre la expansión de los asentamientos Israelíes en Cisjordania,” news release no. 069/23, February 17, 2023, https://www.cancilleria.gob.ar/es/actualidad/noticias/comunicado-conjunto-de-los-gobiernos-de-argentina-brasil-chile-y-mexico-sobre-la.
66 André Lucena, “Lula critica reação desproporcional de Israel a ataques do Hamas,” Carta Capital, October 24, 2023, https://www.cartacapital.com.br/politica/lula-critica-reacao-desproporcional-de-israel-a-ataques-do-hamas/.
67 Lucena, “Lula critica reação.”
68 Andreia Verdélio, “President Lula Says War in the Middle East is Genocide,” Agência Brasil, October 25, 2023, https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/politica/noticia/2023-10/president-lula-says-war-middle-east-genocide.
69 “Security Council Fails to Adopt Resolution Calling for Humanitarian Pauses in Israel-Gaza Crisis on Account of Veto by United States,” United Nations, October 18, 2023. https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15450.doc.htm.
70 Guilherme Botacini, “Governo Lula declara apoio à denúncia contra Israel por genocídio na Corte de Haia,” Folha de S. Paulo, January 10, 2024, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2024/01/governo-lula-declara-apoio-a-denuncia-contra-israel-por-genocidio-na-corte-de-haia.shtml.
71 Botacini, “Governo Lula declara.”
72 Ivana Saric and Rahul Mukherjee, “Which Countries Have Withdrawn Diplomats over Israel’s Actions in Gaza,” Axios, November 16, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/israel-gaza-war-countries-against-cease-fire-diplomats.
73 “Israel-Palestine: Who Is Argentina’s Israel-Loving President-Elect, Javier Milei?,” Middle East Eye, November 20, 2023, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-argentina-javier-milei-president-elect-who.
74 “Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim A. A. Khan KC, on the Situation in the State of Palestine: Receipt of a Referral from Five States Parties,” International Criminal Court, November 17, 2023, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-prosecutor-international-criminal-court-karim-aa-khan-kc-situation-state-palestine.
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Gabriel Huland
Gabriel Huland is a lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Bath, UK. He holds a PhD from SOAS, UK. Prior to joining academia, he was a journalist.