The Palestinian Diaspora and Latin American Solidarity with the Palestinian Cause: Brazil as a Model

Abstract

The Palestinian diaspora and Arab communities in Latin America, especially in Brazil, have contributed significantly to the Palestinian cause in Latin America. The convergence between these communities and union and left parties encouraged the left to include the Palestinian cause on its agenda. Brazil may be considered a model in this respect because of the influence of its Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT), which led the Latin American left after the founding of the São Paulo Forum in 1992. The Palestinian community has an even greater role to play today, the more so since the PT’s exclusion from power favors Israel at the expense of the Palestinian cause.

A diáspora palestina e as comunidades árabes na América Latina, especialmente no Brasil, teem contribuído significativamente para a causa palestina na América Latina. A convergência entre essas comunidades, sindicatos e partidos de esquerda levou a esquerda a incluir a causa palestina em sua agenda. O Brasil pode ser considerado um modelo nesse aspecto devido à influência do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), que liderou a esquerda latino-americana após a fundação do Fórum de São Paulo em 1992. A comunidade palestina tem uma relevância ainda maior já que a perda de poder do PT favorece Israel em detrimento da causa palestina.

Keywords

Diaspora Brazil Latin America Palestinian cause Left forces President Lula

Palestinian immigration to Latin America began in the early nineteenth century as a response to the economic and political conditions that swept the region under the Ottoman Empire. The destinations of immigrants at first were Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and Brazil and later included most of the Latin American countries. Immigration to Brazil increased as one of the results of the visit to the Middle East in the last quarter of the nineteenth century of the Brazilian Emperor Don Pedro II, who was fascinated by Arab culture. Most of the immigrants settled in the Northeast, especially in Salvador and Pernambuco.

The waves of migration continued as a result of the political developments taking place in Palestine starting with World War I and Palestine’s falling under the British Mandate. The British Mandate harassed the Palestinians in order to create the Jewish national homeland in Palestine, which in practice was a translation of the Balfour Declaration. Another chapter of migration came after the partition of Palestine and the forced displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands to establish the State of Israel. The 1967 war witnessed another chapter followed by Israeli occupation of West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Most of the Palestinian migrants were from Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. Today they are found in all Latin American countries, and their impact on local communities is considerable and evident.

Hissa Hazin (n.d.), a Brazilian of Palestinian descent from Bethlehem, has described the history of his family’s migration in the early twentieth century, explaining that Don Pedro II’s meeting with Christian clergy in Bethlehem inspired them to send envoys to raise funds for churches in Palestine that were living under distressed economic conditions. These conditions pushed Palestinians to emigrate during World War I and the beginning of the British Mandate. The Palestinian immigrants of that period never looked back.

The Palestinian diaspora in particular and Arab communities in general have contributed significantly to a change in public opinion about the Palestinian cause on the continent and especially in Brazil. The convergence of these communities with the unions and the left-wing parties contributed to the inclusion of the Palestinian cause in their agendas and programs. The Palestinian people were considered a living example of imperialist aggression against humanity and the Palestinian cause as a spearhead in the face of that aggression.

The decline of the left in Latin America, represented by the victories of the right in a number of countries of the continent (among them Argentina) and the removal of President Dilma Rousseff from power in Brazil, is deemed to favor Israel at the expense of Palestinian rights. This decline ought to prompt Palestinian and Arab communities to play a greater role in Latin American societies in defending Palestinian rights, foremost of which is their right to independence and self-determination, and reminding governments of those rights. This paper examines the role played by the Palestinian and Arab communities, in cooperation with the left, in the recognition by Brazil and most of the countries of the continent of Palestinian rights and of the Palestinian state. Its historical approach allows the study of the role of Palestinians and the Arab countries at different stages of Brazil’s political history and comparative analysis of the impact of the situation in Palestine on diaspora and left politics in Brazil.

Brazil was selected for this case study partly because the Brazilian left has led the left of Latin America ever since the founding of the São Paulo Forum in 1992. The main goal of the PT in power was to prevent the return of U.S. hegemony to the continent. Brazil has been the “big sister” of the Latin American countries, consistently standing by many of these countries, adopting their issues, and providing political and economic assistance. The United States has consistently tried to topple the leftist regime in Brazil by supporting rival candidates of the PT and support right-wing candidates with liberal ideologies such as Aicio Neves. It is natural that the United States, which represents the liberal capitalist system, opposes any socialist orientation, especially in Latin America, which it considers its backyard. A diplomatic crisis broke out between the two countries in 2013 when Edward Snowden released WikiLeaks documents showing that the U.S. National Security Agency had spied on President Dilma Rousseff’s e-mails, phone calls, and text messages (Winter, 2013). The ideology of the PT, which the United States rejects, often motivates it to try to weaken or replace the existing leaders.

The Palestinian diaspora community in Brazil has led the Palestinian diaspora on the continent since the 1980s. It founded and led the Confederação Palestina Latino Americana e do Caribe (Confederation of Palestinian Communities in Latin America and the Caribbean—COPLAC), created in 1984. Any decline in the role of Brazil will adversely affect both the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian community in Brazil.

The Palestinian Diaspora and the Latin American Left

The relationship between the Palestinian diaspora and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Latin America began in the late 1960s and intensified in the 1980s with the return of democracy and the decline of military governments on the continent. Perhaps the best country in which to study this relationship is Brazil, the largest country on the continent in terms of both geography and population, where the left has played a leading role in the Latin American left since the early 1990s and the local Palestinian community has been a pioneer in the unification of the continent’s Palestinian communities. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was active in Latin American countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s, aided by the spread of socialist and Marxist ideas and movements. The contacts of Wadi’ Haddad, the commander of the military wing of the PFLP, with Latin American revolutionary movements including the Argentine Montoneros, the Cuban revolutionaries, the Chilean Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, and the Peruvian Tupamaros contributed to strengthening Palestinian–Latin American relations at the grassroots level on the continent. The Palestinian revolution, represented by the PLO and especially Fatah, was also active through a number of Palestinian organizations and institutions on the continent, among them the General Union of Palestinian Students and the women’s committees and cultural centers of countries such as Brazil and Chile (Abu Eid, 2007).

Ali Khatib, executive director of the Al Quds Institute in Brazil, considered the second in command in the PLO office in Brasília in the 1980s and 1990s, said in a lengthy interview on the Palestinian relationship with the Brazilian left and with the PT in particular that the relationship began with Lula in 1981, when Khatib visited São Bernardo do Campo, the stronghold of the PT, with a Palestinian folkloric group. According to him, two important events in 1982 helped to strengthen relations and create opportunities for cooperation and coordination between the two sides: the Brazilian elections of November 15 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of that year. Recognition by Brazilian social movements, unions, and leftist parties of the nature of the conflict in the Middle East and the justice of the Palestinian cause also played a role. The return of many Brazilian politicians from exile, many from Algeria, after the issuance of amnesty in 1979 strengthened the cooperation. For them the Palestinian cause, a product of capitalism and U.S.-led imperialism, was humanitarian and just (Mirhan, 2010a).

The election of Suhail Sayegh, former head of the Federação Palestina do Brasil (Palestinian Federation of Brazil—FEPAL), deputy from the state of São Paulo and Sergio Tariq to the municipal council in 1982 contributed to the unification and mobilization of Brazilian Arabs of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian origin. It also fostered coordination and consultation between the PT and the Partido Comunista do Brasil (Communist Party of Brazil—PCdoB) and Brazilian Palestinian and Arab groups. The FEPAL supported Lula’s candidacy for governor of São Paulo. There were many meetings between the PT and candidates such as Lula, Airton Soares, and leaders of the Arab and Palestinian community such as Khatib, Sayegh, and Tariq. Members of the FEPAL took part in the PT rally in the Santo Amaro district of São Paulo, and Palestinian-Brazilian candidates accompanied Lula and his staff during the campaign, where the two groups defended each other’s causes (Mirhan, 2010a).

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 1982 and the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut in September 1982 resulted in the death of thousands of Palestinian children, women, and elderly people in flagrant violation of civilians’ right to protection in wartime. Brazilian parties, unions, and social movements supported the Lebanese and the Palestinians in massive demonstrations condemning the massacres and demanding Israel’s withdrawal from Arab lands and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The demonstrators, numbering about 10,000, shouted slogans of solidarity with the PLO and opposition to Israel such as “We are with the PLO” and “Israel is the murderer of the Palestinian people” (Mirhan, 2010a).

The involvement of Brazilians of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian origin in most Brazilian parties and organizations further contributed to the presence of the Palestinian cause on the Brazilian political scene. The cause also benefited from the revitalization and mobilization of Palestinian diaspora organizations after the start of the Second Intifada in 2000, which opened the way for Palestinian diplomacy on the continent (Baeza, 2011: 35).

The Governments of the Left and the Palestinian Cause

The rise of the left in Latin America and its accession to power in several countries of the continent including Brazil was an advantage to the Palestinian cause. The main result was the opening of diplomatic missions in Ramallah by some countries and the recognition of the Palestinian state by several countries whose foreign policy had been in favor of Israel. Additionally, some Latin American countries ended their relations with Israel. Chile was the first Latin American country to open a diplomatic mission in Ramallah, in 2002, and was followed by Brazil in 2004. Costa Rica, Israel’s strongest ally in Central America, recognized the Palestinian state in February 2008. It had previously moved its embassy to Jerusalem and declared its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but it moved the embassy back to Tel Aviv after the recognition of the state. El Salvador had also recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and moved its embassy there, but in 2006, when the leftist Oscar Arias came to power and recognized the Palestinian state, it moved the embassy back. The Dominican Republic also recognized the Palestinian state in July 2009 during the participation of President Leonel Fernández in the Fifteenth Summit of the Nonaligned Movement. In January 2009 Venezuela and Bolivia cut off diplomatic relations with Israel following the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in December (Baeza, 2011: 36).

At the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, Brazil recognized the Palestinian state with its June 4, 1967, borders on December 1, 2010. The significance of this action was clear and immediate. Within three months, all the countries of South America except Colombia had recognized the Palestinian state.¹ Between 2008 and 2013 every Latin American state except Colombia, Panama, and Mexico did so. This recognition demonstrated the regional leadership of Brazil while angering Israel and the United States (Casarões and Vigevani, 2014: 176). Argentina was the first of these, on December 6, followed by Bolivia on December 22, Chile and Ecuador on December 24, 2010, Guyana on January 14, Peru on January 24, Paraguay on January 29, Suriname on February 1, and Uruguay on March 15, 2011 (Baeza, 2011: 38).

Palestinian Communities in Latin American Political Life: The Model of Brazil

The most important question about the role of Palestinian and Arab communities in Latin America is whether they have reached the point where they can influence Brazilian foreign policy. The Palestinian community in Brazil numbers around 60,000, largely concentrated in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilia, Goias, Paraná, Pernambuco, and Rio de Janeiro. Since the end of the 1960s the community has been active through cultural centers, federations, and associations. A general conference in which all these institutions participate, the latest of which was the ninth, on January 26, 2007, is held every few years.²

The organizations of the Palestinian community in Brazil have relations and connections with the Palestinian Authority and the leadership of the various parties in Palestine. At the Ninth Conference, Mayada Bamia, the former Palestinian ambassador to Brazil, delivered a speech on President Abbas’s behalf expressing the pride of the Palestinian leadership in the efforts of the community in Brazil to provide support to the Palestinian people in their just struggle for freedom and independence (Abu Mazin, 2007). It was rare for a visiting Palestinian official not to meet with the Palestinian community and provide an update on the situation in Palestine and the Middle East in general. Abbas met with the Palestinian community in Rio Grande do Sul on November 21, 2009 (MRE, 2009: 391), as had Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki during his visit to Brasilia August 24–26, 2008 (MRE, 2010: 252).

Palestinian diaspora organizations on the continent have been active in the defense of Palestinian rights and helped to rally support for the Palestinian cause in recent years. In Brazil there were committees of solidarity with the Palestinian people such as the Campanha pelo Estado da Palestina Já (Campaign for the State of Palestine Now), protests against the Israeli attacks on Gaza, and pressure on the government to reject the Israeli ambassador Danny Dayan. Many Palestinians were active in these activities, among them Ali Khatib, Hassan Alamla, Jasir Aqil, Ellyan Aladdin (president of the FEPAL), Emir Murad (general secretary of the FEPAL), Suraya Misleh of the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade, Nader Alves Bujah, Maisar Omar, and Ualid Rabah. The most important of these institutions and organizations were the Centro Cultural Palestino de Mato-Grosso do Sul, the Centro Cultural Palestino do Rio Grande do Sul, the Comitê Catarinense de Solidariedade ao Povo Palestino. the Comitê Democrático Palestino, the FEPAL, the Movimento Palestina para Todos, the Sociedade Palestina de Brasília, the Sociedade Palestina de Corumbá, the Sociedade Palestina de Santa Maria, the Sociedade Palestina do Chuí, the União de Entidades Palestinas do Brasil, the Instituto da Cultura Árabe, and the Instituto Jerusalém do Brasil (Carta Maior, 2011).

Cecilia Baeza (2017), a member of the Palestinian Policy Network and a lecturer at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, cites examples of the successes of the pro-Palestinian forces at the grassroots level in South America, particularly in boycotting Israel. One example is the cancellation of the US$170 million contract for the construction of a water treatment plant with the Israeli company Mekorot in Argentina because of the pressure exerted by the Argentine Union Central and social movements protesting that Mekorot was seeking to export the discriminatory water policies it was using against the Palestinian people. Another major victory was the cancellation of the deal with Elbit Systems Aerospace and Defense Company in protest of its role in building the Israeli separation wall and its close relationship with the Israeli army.

The activity of the Palestinian community and its organizations has not stopped with the decline of the left governments in Brazil and Argentina but in some respects increased. The call for a boycott of the occupying state of Israel in cooperation with the leftist forces in the region has been in the forefront of these activities. At the academic level, approximately 200 Brazilian intellectuals demanded in a letter in late 2016, coinciding with a letter in Argentina by more than 400 scholars and researchers, that Israel be boycotted academically. In Chile, 64 percent of students voted to break academic ties with Israeli universities, and 56 percent opposed the establishment of activities involving representatives of the State of Israel. The student union of the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile voted in late 2016 to withdraw a cooperation agreement signed by the university with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. According to Baeza (2017), in both cases students of Palestinian origin played a major role in these activities.

In Brazil the visit of President Lula da Silva to the Middle East in March 2010 was supported by Brazilians of Arab origin and Brazilian intellectuals and politicians who were proponents of the Palestinian cause. They asked President Lula to support the establishment of a Palestinian state with its pre-1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the release of all prisoners, along with an end to the siege of Gaza and the construction of the separation wall and the continuation of peace negotiations (Mirhan, 2010b).

A week after the visit, 21 Brazilian political and union organizations of which more than half represented the Arab community wrote President Lula expressing their appreciation for his courage in rejecting the occupation, the separation wall, and the siege of Gaza and for his refusal to accept the Israeli narrative on Iran and its nuclear program. The letter expressed gratification that Lula recognized the need to involve Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas in the peace negotiations and pride in Brazil, which it described as the “fourth force,” for its efforts to defend justice and truth and refusal to bow to those who controlled the Western press and the arms industry (referring to the United States and Israel). It concluded by blessing the president’s efforts toward the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state capable of building peace in the occupied Arab territories and neighboring countries (CIB, 2010). It was signed by the following organizations: Associação Islâmica de São Paulo, Sociedade Beneficente Muçulmana de São Paulo, Entidades Árabes-Brasileiras de Foz do Iguaçu, Sociedade Beneficente Árabe Brasileira do Paraná, Comitê Árabe Brasileiro de Solidariedade, Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos Islâmicos-PR, Instituto Jerusalém do Brasil, FEPAL, Associação Cultural Sírio Brasileira de São Paulo, Associação Cultural Sírio Brasileira do Paraná, Sociedade Beneficente Muçulmana do Paraná, Jornal Água Verde (Curitiba), Movimento Democracia Direta–Coordenação Nacional, CEBRAPAZ Paraná, União Brasileira de Mulheres-PR, Central dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras do Brasil-PR, UNEGRO PR, Escola Internacional de Formação Política Poder Popular (DF), Fórum Brasileiro de Organizações Populares de Defesa do Parlasul, Comitê Democrático Palestino no Brasil, and Nação Hip Hop Brasil.

The strength of the Palestinian community in Brazil was due not to its size or its financial status but to the tremendous support of the Palestinian cause of a number of popular political parties and unions and of the Arab community, especially the Lebanese. The two largest movements supporting the Palestinian cause were the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (Unified Workers’ Central—CUT) and the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless Workers’ Movement—MST). The Lebanese community, numbering more than 8 million, was involved in political life and belonged to many parties, both right- and left-wing, especially the Labor Party, the Communist Party of Brazil, and the Brazilian Socialist Party.

The CUT was founded on October 28, 1983, in the city of São Bernardo do Campo in the state of São Paulo, the main stronghold of the labor force led by Lula da Silva. Some 5,000 workers from the social movements and unions, including leaders of the PT and the PCdoB, participated in its establishment. The CUT calls itself “a Brazilian trade union organization, independent and democratic, that is concerned with defending the direct and historical interests of the working class and adopts the principles of equality and solidarity.” Its objective is to organize and represent unionism and lead the struggle of workers in cities and rural areas, both in the public and the private sector, to improve living and working conditions, achieve a fair and democratic society, and develop strategies to counter neoliberalism. It has a presence in all sectors of Brazilian economic activity. It is the largest union not only in Brazil but also in Latin America and the fifth-largest union in the world in terms of numbers of locals and individual members, with 3,806 locals, 7,847,077 active members, and a base of 23,981,044. It has played a key role in political, economic, and social change in Brazil and Latin America, contributing, for example, to the end of military rule and the democratization of work relations and to the election of a member president in 2002.

Official relations between the leadership of the CUT and the PLO began soon after the founding of the union. The CUT was a supporter of raising the status of the PLO office to a diplomatic mission and expressed satisfaction when this was accomplished in 1986. Its national leadership met with the PLO’s Farid Sawan in Brasília on March 9, 1986, declaring its complete support and solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. It considered the meeting evidence of the links between Brazilian workers and Palestinian workers in exile and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The CUT believes that a just and lasting peace depends upon the establishment of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty and full membership in the United Nations, including an end to the Israeli occupation, the removal of Israeli settlements, and resolution of the problems of refugees and Jerusalem according to UN resolutions that express the basic interests of the peoples of the region. It has undertaken popular mobilizations in Brazil in support of the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli government in partnership with activists from Brazilian organizations. It believes that “to support the Palestinian people is to support all nations in their pursuit of peace, justice, and freedom” (CUT, 2011).

The MST was founded in 1984 and is one of the most prominent social movements in Brazil. It has branches in 23 of the 27 Brazilian states and a membership of 1.5 million. Its objective is land reform. In addition it works toward the establishment of a juster and more progressive society through its commitment to preserving the environment, securing adequate housing, literacy, democratic education, universal health insurance, and attention to women. It was influenced by prominent revolutionary figures such as Che Guevara, Rosa Luxemburg, Augusto Sandino, Emiliano Zapata, Nelson Mandela, and other revolutionary fighters who set an example in life through their commitment to a better society. It was also deeply influenced by the teachings of the educator Paulo Freire (1921–1997) and his efforts to transform education from a tool of compliance and oppression into a tool of self-liberation, freedom of speech, and social and human justice (Atawi, 2012).

Challenges to the Palestinian Diaspora

There is no doubt that at this juncture the Palestinian people and their cause are facing critical and dangerous historical challenges. The situation requires Palestinians everywhere and international forces that defend peace and human rights to combine efforts in facing these challenges. The declaration of Jerusalem the capital of Israel by U.S. President Donald Trump and the subsequent illegal Israeli legislation and decisions are contrary to the international consensus rejecting the Israeli occupation and any change in the status of Jerusalem.

In addition to the challenges to the Palestinian cause, there are challenges facing the Palestinian diaspora communities and their organizations in Latin America in the form of the decline of the left on the continent, the retreat from the two-state solution, and the lack of harmony in political attitudes. Cecilia Baeza (2017) has argued that the decline of the left may affect support for the Palestinian cause and that Palestinian communities and popular campaigns have a greater responsibility than previously to remind the Latin American governments of their human rights commitments, support the Palestinian cause, and boycott Israel.

The year 2014 was the year of the left in South America. All the countries of the continent were ruled by the forces of the left except Colombia and Paraguay. The years 2015 and 2016 witnessed the left’s decline, represented among other things by the victory of Mauricio Macri (center-right) in Argentina, the right-wing victory in the legislative elections in Venezuela, and the triumph of the center-right in the presidential elections in Peru and the municipal elections in Chile. The PT was eased from power in Brazil when the Senate voted in favor of removing President Dilma Rousseff from office. Prior to that, Bolivians had rejected a referendum that would have allowed President Evo Morales to be nominated for a fourth term. The most important changes were in Brazil and Argentina, which had been for the past two decades an impregnable barrier against U.S. hegemony on the continent.

The arrival of the right in power may pose a danger to the Palestinian cause because it rejects the left’s stance as an ideology that serves a partisan agenda rather than the national interest. New governments could align themselves with Israel or at least maintain their distance from both parties in the Middle East conflict. This possibility was raised by the MST in a letter to the secretary-general of the PFLP, Ahmad Saadat, on October 27, 2014 (quoted in Baeza, 2017):

We have ended the election campaign by defeating the right-wing candidate who represented the interests of the more conservative and fascist sections of the pro-Israelis. The Zionists in Brazil mobilized in the elections, but they were defeated at the ballot box. We know the limits of bourgeois elections, and we do not spread illusions. Dilma’s victory preserves the Brazilian zeal for the continuation of the struggle in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

By the end of Lula’s second term, the Brazilian opposition had used the 2010 elections to attack Lula’s policies and oust Dilma Rousseff, President Lula’s candidate. It accused the anti-American factions of the party of dominating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, giving as examples the Brazilian-Iranian rapprochement, Lula’s policy toward the Middle East, and its support for the left governments in Latin America, which they saw as a deviation in foreign policy and in Brazilian diplomacy, and argued that the policy of President Lula served the interests of the party rather than those of the country. Roberto Abdenur, former Brazilian ambassador to the United States, accused the PT and its leftist allies of taking control of Itamaraty and formulating Brazilian foreign policy according to the intellectual and ideological positions of the left rather than in the service of the national interest. He argued that President Lula’s foreign policy was contaminated by anti-Americanism and that the decisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were shortsighted (Abdenur, 2007).³

The decline of the left has affected the positions on the Palestinian issue of the regional organizations. The two most important organizations are the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America—ALBA) and Mercosur, which have historically supported the Palestinian cause but have witnessed recent decline in this support in their response to President Trump’s position on Jerusalem. ALBA, a progressive organization with a socialist approach, is linked to socialist governments and socialist democracy. The organization consists of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Santa Lucia, San Cristóbal, and Grenada. The positions of the ALBA member states changed in less than 10 days. The final communiqué of the Sixteenth Meeting of the Political Council at the level of Foreign Ministers and Heads of Delegation of Member States, held in Havana on December 15, 2017, announced the rejection by all members of Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The communiqué expressed deep concern over the decision, which would have serious repercussions for stability in the Middle East and constitute a grave and flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and UN resolutions. But when ALBA member states voted on UN General Assembly Draft Resolution A/ES-10’L.22 on December 21, 2017, two states were absent (Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and Grenadines) and two others (Antigua and Barbuda) abstained. Mercosur, which consists of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the most important economic organization in South America, also witnessed a decline in its support for the Palestine cause when two members (Argentina and Paraguay) abstained from voting on the resolution.

The second challenge facing the Palestinian communities in Latin America is the retreat from the two-state solution. Donald Trump’s declaration about Jerusalem has led to the collapse of this option, which had been adopted by resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also affected the future of peace in the Holy City, a spiritual symbol for more than half of the planet’s population. The Trump’s declaration was rejected by a recent resolution of the majority of the members of the General Assembly at an emergency meeting on the theme “United for Peace,” with 128 against, 9 in favor, and 24 abstaining. The U.S. decision encouraged Israel to make several quick decisions about the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jerusalem, and the occupied West Bank, to legitimate the illegal settlements there, that are incompatible with the UN resolutions, the roadmap plan, and the decisions of the Quartet for Peace.

The extraordinary silence on these measures of the Brazilian government, which issued a vague statement without criticizing Trump’s decision, confirms a clear change in Brazilian foreign policy toward the Middle East and the peace process and a distancing from the basic values of the Brazilian nation adopted by the governments of President Lula and his successor, Dilma Rousseff, and summed up by Minister Celso Amorim in terms of four values—peace, pluralism, tolerance, and solidarity—and from the principles that Brazil has held for decades, the foremost of which is the peaceful settlement of disputes (Correa, 2013: 956).

Conclusion

Brazil’s leftists need to believe that the decline of the left in power in various countries on the continent does not mean that the capitalist system led by the United States is the right one. They also need to recognize that their failure to regain power gives the United States an opportunity to regain its hold on the continent and means the return of the continent to the control of a global unipolar system that undermines the efforts made by national systems over the past two decades to emerge into a multipolar world and build independent national decision systems without the intervention of Washington.

The Palestinian community organizations should realize that the political support they have received from the leftist governments could end with their demise. With this their opportunities for action will be limited, perhaps the more so because of increasing U.S. and Israeli involvement in the affairs of the continent. They must realize that they have more responsibilities than before and that this will require a new vision and strategy converging with those of the various leftist forces, especially with the rise of the right wing to power with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has promised to shift the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and close the Palestinian embassy in Brasília. Defending Palestinian positions will require greater involvement in the Palestinian cause and a setting aside of internal differences in favor of that one issue. It will also require building an international front in alliance with the forces of the left and of peace and justice against the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories through boycott, divestment, and sanctions and for the trial of Israel in the International Criminal Court for its war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Footnotes

Notes

Rasem Bisharat has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and is coordinator of international relations for Brazil’s Universidade de Políticos do Movimento Popular.

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