BY PAUL ANTONOPOULOS
*Jair Bolsonaro in meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit: Alan Santos/ PR/ Flickr
There is currently a strong push coming from the Brazilian capital of Brasilia to open their Israeli embassy in occupied Jerusalem and their Palestinian embassy in East Jerusalem, in which Senator Esperidião Amin claims “If President [Jair] Bolsonaro accepted this recommendation, I have no doubt that he would be a natural candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. What other action, in such a complicated cause, could more eloquently represent respect for both states and the cause of coexistence? I don’t know any other.” It is little surprise that Amin, a former mayor of the southern city of Florianópolis who was given the position without an election by the Brazilian dictatorship and is of Lebanese ancestry, made such a ludicrous claim that Bolsonaro could be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize with an embassy move to Jerusalem.
Amin defends that “Jerusalem's status as a city is not subject to a single country” and he recalled that in 1947, Brazil through diplomat Oswaldo Aranha, chaired a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly that established, in theory, the partition of Palestine and the creation of two states in the region. He went onto say that “this is not my invention, it is giving practical consequences, intelligence and coherence to what Brazil announced seventy-odd years ago at the UN.”
Bolsonaro intends to transfer his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of the United States. The initiative was repudiated by Arab countries and part of the international community, including the UN, knowing that it does more to keep the Palestinian question unresolved rather than closer to resolution. Brazil had to quickly back down from the embassy move under threat that Arab countries, one of the main purchasers of Brazilian agricultural products, will turn to other countries to meet their food demands. Bolsonaro says their commitment to move the embassy is maintained despite the backlash, but so far, the government has opened only one commercial office in Jerusalem.
Concerned about the situation in the Middle East, Amin invited Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo to speak at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Brazil's support for the “Deal of the Century” proposed by US President Donald Trump for Israel and Palestine. The plan, which foresees the creation of two states, did not involve the Palestinians and was negotiated by Washington only with the Israelis. Araújo appeared on Thursday in the Senate and reiterated Brazil's support for Trump's proposal.
The question then arises why a South American country has such a fixation on appeasing Israel, despite being continents away and having over 10 million Brazilians of Arab descent. The answer lays with the growing power of the Christian Zionist Evangelical Churches in Brazil. Although Catholicism is traditionally the main religion in Brazil, the Evangelical churches have made significant inroads into the social and political life in Brazil. In 1991, 9% of Brazilians identified as Evangelical while 83% were Catholic. However, in a 2010 joint study by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística and Fundação Getúlio Vargas, it found that 20% of Brazilians identified as Evangelical and the number of Catholics had dropped to 68%. Today it is estimated at least 30% of Brazilians are Evangelical.
Evangelicalism is predicted to be the majority religion in Brazil by 2030 and has become a political and social juggernaut. Evangelical adherents collectively influence politicians and use broadcast and social media, to promote pro-Israeli sentiment. Whereas once Brazil maintained a balanced policy towards the Middle East, under Bolsonaro with the Evangelical lobbies backing, he has steered his country into a completely pro-Israel stance. The number of Evangelical representatives and senators in politics has drastically increased and in 2018, the Catholic-born but re-baptized as Evangelical, Jair Bolsonaro, became the Brazilian President. To galvanize the increasingly powerful political support of the Evangelicals, Bolsonaro promised to move the Brazilian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He made it one of his main policy goals by continually mentioning this on the presidential election campaign trail. Brazilian Evangelicals were elated by this Bolsonaro promise as they believe there will be a future golden age when Jesus Christ returns to reigns on Earth. Before Christ’s return there would be a time of tribulation where Christ defeats evil; only after natural disasters, wars and the Antichrist devastate the world. After these tribulations, the Evangelicals believe that the people of the Mosaic covenant, including the Jews who will convert to Christianity, will bring forth the golden age. For this to happen, however, the Jewish people must reclaim the Holy Land. This will also bring forth the second coming of Christ. As Christian Zionists, Evangelicals support the expansionist drive of the state of Israel in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the annexed Golan Heights region of Syria. For Christian Zionists, these actions represent the Jewish reclamation of the Holy Land to fulfill prophecy.
As Bolsonaro is a conservative former military Captain, it is little surprise that Amin as a product of the Brazilian military dictatorship is backing a plan to reverse Brazil’s once pro-Palestine policy to a “down the middle” policy that only legitimizes an embassy move from Tel Aviv. As the military apparatus of Brazil and Evangelicalism have become strongholds of conservatism in the country, they now walk hand in hand, and that path goes towards Israel. But for Bolsonaro to win a Nobel Peace Prize for moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem? This is extremely unlikely as even the United Nations condemns any embassy move – but this was not a serious thought by Amin and rather it was used to satisfy the local Evangelical population who will continue having an anti-Palestine policy.
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