Brazil Refuses to Accept New Israeli Ambassador

"This is the first time in the world that an Israeli ambassador is not accepted due to his ideological performance and positions and this trend is dangerous." - Tzipi Hotovely, deputy foreign minister of Israel

Israeli ambassador Dani Dayan Photo courtesy: timesofisrael.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - After four months, Brazil still declines Dani Dayan as the new ambassador of Israel. Not surprisingly, this has caused a political crisis between Rio de Janeiro and Tel Aviv.

According to Times of Israel, Brazilian MP Carlos Marun considered the appointment of Dayan an insult to Brazil and said "Settlers have hijacked other people's lands and we do not accept their choice as the representative of Israeli as people and state".

The 60-year-old Dayan was the Chairman of the Yesha council from 2007 to 2013, in this role he managed all Jewish settlements in the West Bank of the Jordan river.

Marun further stated, "This is similar to the German government appointing one of its former officers of the Nazi camps as its ambassador in Brazil or the Chile government appointing a warder of General Pinochet times or South Africa apposing one of its apartheid era prison torturers".

The sensitivity of leftist and pro-Palestinian groups in Brazil intensified after the Israeli attack on Gaza and with increasing domestic pressure, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, adopted a tough stance against Israel that led to diplomatic tensions and after a while the former ambassador left Brazil and Reda Mansour (the current ambassador) replaced him. The selection and introduction of Dayan takes place only a year after delegating Reda Mansour.

The majority of Brazilian people are against appointing Dayan as the new ambassador of Israel in this country and this has proven to be one of the main headlines of Brazilian newspapers and media.

The Hebrew newspaper YNET (Yedioth Ahronoth) wrote the president of the Brazilian government, demanding the cancellation of Dayan's appointment. Rousseff pointed out in this letter that the appointment of this ambassador means a tacit Brazilian approval of West Bank settlement buildings, despite all United Nations disagreements.

YNET also wrote that while Israel sees Brazil as a strategic country, if Netanyahu insists on the appointment of Dayan, Tel Aviv-Brasilia relations will worsen and canceling the appointment of a new ambassador will be like slapping Israel and the cabinet.

Tzipi Hotovely, the deputy foreign minister of Israel, said: "This is the first time in the world that an Israeli ambassador is not accepted due to his ideological performance and positions and this trend is dangerous."

In her news conference Hotovely said that Brazilian government is affected by pressures and influences of organizations and institutions supporting Palestine and this is why they have refused to accept the new Israeli ambassador.

According to the Israeli Maariv newspaper, an influential Jewish Brazilian resident has asked the state of Israel to keep its rights and requests to present an Israeli ambassador at any cost because the current crisis is an opportunity to test the power of Israel in the world.

In this regard and following the rejection of the Israeli ambassador in Brazil, Israel fears that this becomes an innovation in other countries in Latin America that may lead other countries to also reject Israeli diplomats who are settlers. Failure to determine a new ambassador in Brazil is a major blow to Israel.

Given that Dayan is an opponent of establishing a Palestinian state and is on the record about that belief, Brazilian newspapers that are aware of this have written that an objection to his designation as ambassador is not limited to the field of diplomacy and will have broader dimensions.