Israel announced on Monday that its diplomatic relations with Brazil will be downgraded after Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva refused to accept Israel’s candidate for ambassador, Gali Dagan.
Israel declared Lula persona non grata in response.
“After Brazil refrained, unusually, from responding to Ambassador Dagan’s request for approval, Israel withdrew the request and now relations between the countries are conducted at a lower diplomatic level,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Brazil’s ties with Israel have deteriorated sharply under da Silva, who founded the Brazilian Workers’ Party.
In June, while visiting France, Lula accused Israel of carrying out “a premeditated genocide” and describing international recognition of a Palestinian state as both a “moral and human duty.”
Brazil officially recognized Palestinian statehood in 2010 under a previous Lula administration.
In May 2024, Brazil recalled its ambassador to Israel, Federico Meyer. It has still not named his replacement.
In Feb. 2024, Lula claimed, “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Lula’s remarks as “shameful... This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared Lula persona non grata over his Holocaust remarks.
On the positive side, the Brazilian Parliament in December 2024 deepened its legislative ties with Israel in a direct pushback against the foreign policy of Brazil’s president.
