Brazil’s government, whose president has accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide in the Gaza Strip, last week took the country out of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance( IHRA), citing the legal obligations that come with membership.
Brazil’s accession in 2021 to IHRA, an international coalition comprising dozens of countries committed to fighting antisemitism and preserving the memory of the Holocaust, under former president Jair Bolsonaro was “hasty and made under pressure,” the O Globo daily quoted a government spokesperson as saying.
Brazil had been one of nine IHRA observer countries.
Many IHRA critics dispute the coalition’s working definition of antisemitism, which includes the demonization of Israel. IHRA adopted that definition after the European Union took it off of its website following protests by anti-Israel activists.
CONIB, Brazil’s umbrella group of Jewish communities and organization, condemned the move in a post last week on X, noting it comes “amid a sharp rise in cases of antisemitism and hatred against Jews worldwide.”
The measure “represents a moral and diplomatic setback, weakens Brazil’s international commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, and paves the way for the undermining of global efforts in combating antisemitism,” CONIB wrote.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry also protested, writing on X: “Brazil’s decision to join the legal offensive against Israel at the ICJ while withdrawing from the IHRA, is a demonstration of a profound moral failure. At a time when Israel is fighting for its very existence, turning against the Jewish state and abandoning the global consensus against antisemitism is both reckless and shameful.”
Last month, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira confirmed that the country would sign the South African lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the United States are among the countries that condemned the lawsuit.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has repeatedly accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide. “This is not a war. It is genocide,” Lula said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. “A genocide being carried out by a highly trained army, against women and children,” he said, referring to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Lula’s hostility toward Israel is a divisive issue in Brazil, where the Federal Senate last week passed a law that inaugurated an official day of friendship with Israel, in a rebuke of Lula’s controversial policies vis-a-vis the Jewish State.
Although several Latin American countries have adopted IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism – Costa Rica announced last month that it would do so—the alliance has only one Latin American member in Argentina. After Brazil’s departure as an observer, Uruguay is the only Latin American country with that status.
