Itongadol.- “The Brazilian Israelite Confederation made a formal complaint to Itamaraty (Foreign Ministry headquarters) over (their decision of banning the Brazilian citizens that were born in Jerusalem from showing up as Israeli native on the passport). They rejected the two state solution with a sharing responsibility of Jerusalem and said that a person who is born on the east side of the city is not considered Israeli, so they simply omit putting “Israel” on the passport and stick to international trend of the United States and some of the European Countries”, explained today, Monday, Richard Berkiensztat, the executive vice president of the Israeli Federation of Sao Pablo, to the Jewish News Agency
“It was a wrong move and it adds another negative matter on the relationship with Israel, but it´s relevant, and we´ll stay in touch with Itamaraty until they summit a statement that will clarify our position”, he added.
The tension started last year, when Brazil has decided to remove their ambassador from Israel due to the Protective Edge Operation against the terrorist in the Gaza Strip – other countries in Latin America did the same – however, the relationship has improved since the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, approached Dilma (Rousseff) and apologized for the comments that the former spokesman of the Embassy, Yigal Palmor, said, when he called this country – Brazil- a ‘diplomatic midget’”, expressed Berkiensztat.
“Now, I believe we have an upcoming problem, because the ambassador of Israel (Reda Mansour), is coming back to Brazil due to personal issues and the Prime Minister Netanyahu has named the Argentinian politician, Dany Dayan, to be the new ambassador, without even asking Brazil for their grant”, he predicted. “The local newspapers gave a huge importance to this matter”.
“He will be arriving after the holidays, in October or November, but I don’t think it’s the greatest decision at this time for Latin America, the left wing parties – not yet Arabs- have already requested that he will be rejected”, confessed the executive vice president of the Israeli Federation of Sao Pablo.
“On the other hand, yesterday (Sunday) the newspapers published an article about the cooperation between Brazil and Israel, in which Brazil is buying 70 Israeli missiles for the Olimpic Games, that will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, meaning that there are political complications, but there is also a commercial bond that remains intact”, stated Berkiensztat.
The Foreign Ministry´s decision will affect at least 60 Brazilian