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Itongadol.- The Foreign Ministry’s human resource department on Thursday published a tender for Israel’s ambassadorship in Brazil, putting to final rest a moribund effort to push through the appointment of former settler leader Dani Dayan against Brasilia’s wishes.
“This morning the human resource department of the Foreign Ministry published a tender for the post of ambassador in Brasilia. That means Dani Dayan is no longer our candidate for the post,” a senior diplomatic official told The Times of Israel.
A source said Dayan was surprised by the move and described him as humiliated. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his nomination of Dayan as Israel’s new ambassador to Brazil on August 5, 2015. But after a few months, it emerged that Brasilia was refusing to accept Dayan due to his past as chairman of the Yesha Council, a committee representing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the unorthodox way in which his appointment was announced.
Brazilian officials confirmed their government’s refusal to accept Dayan, first anonymously and later in public. But Jerusalem for some time refused to back down, arguing doing so could set a harmful precedent.
At a January press conference for foreign journalists, Netanyahu made plain that he had no intention of withdrawing his support for Dayan. “I believe that Danny Dayan is an exceptionally qualified candidate,” he said. “And he remains my candidate.”
Dayan could not immediately be reached for comment. The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Latin America is one of the main objectives of the State of Israel in the context of its efforts to develop markets that will contribute to increasing economic growth,” Netanyahu declared last August, on the day he named Dayan for the ambassador job.
In a press release about the appointment at the time, the Prime Minister’s Office explained the importance of good ties with Brazil, stating that a fifth of the country’s 200 million citizens are “pro-Israel Christians.”
Jerusalem has therefore “set as a goal the development of commercial links with international markets in South America, especially Brazil,” the prime minister said.