Brazilian governor apologizes for hosting Hezbollah official

The governor of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state apologizes to the Jewish community for welcoming a Muslim clergyman accused of having ties with Hezbollah.

Gov. Marcio Franca welcomed Sheikh Bilal Mohsen Wehbe as part of a Lebanese delegation visiting the state government headquarters on April 17. On Saturday, Veja magazine’s online edition revealed that the meeting took place and that the shkeikh “is the main name of the terrorist group Hezbollah in South America.”

A day later, the Sao Paulo Jewish Federation released a statement condemning the meeting.

“Unfortunately, Gov. Marcio Franca and his team ignored the organization’s links to smuggling and drug trafficking in the Triple Frontier region between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, as well as its radical stance calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, and gave legitimacy to a group recognized as terrorist by countless democratic countries,” the statement said, referring to Hezbollah.

Franca apologized to Jewish officials that he welcomed on Monday, including the president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, the country’s umbrella Jewish organization. During the meeting organized by Congressman Floriano Pesaro, who is Jewish, the governor said he was not familiar with the names in the Lebanese delegation and admitted that “the check may have been flawed.”

— JTA