Rio’s incoming mayor says city should be ‘walled like Jerusalem’
At event featuring model of Temple-era capital, Marcelo Crivella tells Jewish leaders that barrier would keep out weapons, drugs
The mayor-elect of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, declared that Brazil’s second largest city should protect itself like the city of Jerusalem.
The city should be totally surrounded by walls to prevent the entry of arms and drugs, the mayor-elect, who is a licensed Evangelical bishop, said.
“We are living during a deep moral crisis,” he said in reference to the recent wave of violence in the city. “It should be walled like Jerusalem.”
Crivella made the statement during a Monday meeting with Jewish and Christian leaders held at the Jerusalem Cultural Center, a large evangelical temple, that houses a 736-square-meter model of first century Jerusalem which is considered the world’s largest outside of Israel.
https://youtu.be/iuVEPomtrLo
Built from construction material that came from Israel, the 881-square-yard model portrays the topography and architecture of the Israeli capital in 66 CE at the time of the Second Temple, before Jerusalem was ransacked by the Romans.
Nathan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, attended the meeting. During a short visit to Brazil, he announced that more than 700 immigrants from Brazil are scheduled to arrive in Israel by the end of the year, a 45-year high for the South American country.
“He knew Rio’s new mayor was a prominent Evangelical leader and wanted to meet him. We chose the Jerusalem Cultural Center so that Sharansky could visit the replica of how Jerusalem was” almost two millennia ago, said Israel’s honorary consul Osias Wurman.
Crivella, who was elected on October 30, met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat during a visit to Israel two weeks ago. As a senator, Crivella has maintained a pro-Israel stance. He claims to have visited Israel around 40 times.
