Brazilian Jews ‘relieved’ spat over envoy finally resolved

Days after Israel withdrew the candidacy of former settler leader Dani Dayan as ambassador to Brazil, the head of the country’s Jewish community says he is happy the saga is finally over.

“We are relieved that this ended. And we hope now that this could be a fresh start, that we could take this moment to relaunch the bilateral relationship,” Fernando Lottenberg, the president of the Jewish Confederation of Brazil, said Wednesday. “It is very important for both countries and the Brazilian Jewish community to have someone who can represent Israel here and with whom we can work together to improve the relationship.”

In August 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had appointed Dayan, a former chairman of the pro-settler Yesha Council, as Israel’s new ambassador in Brasilia. It soon emerged that the Brazilian government was unwilling to accept Dayan — partly due to his support for the settlement movement — but Jerusalem refused withdraw his candidacy and nominate someone else. On Monday, Netanyahu announced that Dayan would become Israel’s new consul-general in New York.

Speaking to The Times of Israel from Sao Paulo, Lottenberg did not hide the discomfort of Brazil’s Jewish community over the months-long standoff.

“It’s not a good position to be in,” he said. “When you want to show Brazilian society what happens in Israel, especially during difficult times, it’s important to have an Israeli diplomatic presence on the highest level.”

His organization, known by its Portuguese acronym Conib, is first and foremost concerned with guaranteeing the security and well-being of the Brazilian Jewish community, he said. “But we also have as one of our objectives the improvement of the bilateral relationship. Of course we’re not an embassy, we don’t represent and we don’t want to represent the Israeli government. That is not our role. But we’re in a good position to help both sides.”

Lottenberg said it was regrettable that no high-ranking Israeli official was present at his organization’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony earlier this year, during which several Brazilian officials participated. He expressed the hope that a new Israeli ambassador would arrive in Brasilia in time for the Olympic Games this summer in Rio de Janeiro. On August 14, a ceremony commemorating the 11 Israelis killed during the 1972 Olympics in Munich is scheduled to take place in Rio’s City Hall.

However, at this point it is unlikely that a new Israeli ambassador will arrive in time. The Foreign Ministry has yet to publish an internal tender asking for applications for the job, and even when a candidate is selected it usually it takes several months before he or she formally takes up the position.

Despite the Brazilian Jewish community’s uncomfortable position, evidenced by a January column in which a prominent Brazilian journalist wrote that “the cordial coexistence here granted to the Jewish community is threatened,” Lottenberg argues that no permanent damage was done to the community’s relationship with the government or to Israel-Brazil ties.

“It was a crisis that we finally overcame,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity — if we are reasonable, if we have good will on both sides we can restart the relationship.”

Problems occur in every relationship between two states, but the Israel-Brazil relationship dates back to the UN partition plan and Israel’s founding in 1948, and includes significant trade ties, Lottenberg said.

Bilateral ties are too strong to be destroyed by the Dayan appointment episode, he concluded. “It will be remembered, unfortunately, but it cannot stop us from moving forward.”