Brazil Declares Israel Ambassador as a Non Grata

Faced with the persistent genocide of Israel in the Gaza Strip, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, made official on Wednesday the withdrawal of his ambassador in Tel Aviv, Federico Meyer.

In a decree published in the Official Journal of the Union, the Head of State appointed Meyer as the representative of Brasilia to the Conference on Disarmament of the United Nations (UN), whose headquarters are in the Swiss city of Geneva.

For now, the diplomatic representation of the South American nation will be led by its chargé d’affaires, Minister Fábio Farias.

Lula has been very critical of Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, particularly the deliberate and systematic killing of women and children and other violations of international law committed by the occupiers.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva removes his ambassador from Israel. The strongest move from Brazil so far, Lula had previously spoken against Israel’s violent actions towards Palestinian civilians since the beginning of the war and compared Israeli army actions in Gaza to those… https://t.co/1EBxktnX4Y

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May 29, 2024

Meyer was called to consultations by the Foreign Ministry last February, after during an African Union summit the president of Brazil compared the genocide of the Palestinian population by the Israeli occupiers with the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.

After these statements, Israel declared Lula persona non grata and demanded that he retract, an act that was considered humiliating by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.

Although Brazil did not sever relations with Israel, Meyer’s withdrawal reduces the importance of the Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv and is seen as the strongest measure adopted by Brasilia against the occupying power, whose siege of Gaza has killed more than 36,100 Palestinians.

This decision of Brazil takes place amid a growing global condemnation of the atrocities of the Israeli occupiers against Palestinian civilians and the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel stop its military operation in Rafah, mandate that Tel Aviv has not complied with.