The IHRA definition of antisemitism is being used in a coordinated offensive across Latin America to criminalize solidarity with Palestine. The targets are not only Palestine activists but also the backbone of Latin America’s social movements.
Colombia’s upcoming election could be a turning point for foreign policy across Latin America. Trump friendly pro-Israel politics have swept across the region, but a win by Iván Cepeda would show “pink-wave” support for Palestine is still strong.
The people of the world, especially those in the Global South, must move beyond symbolic support to take concrete actions, such as grassroots organizing, BDS, and South–South solidarity, to end Israel’s settler-colonial project.
Brazilians have long supported Palestine, but the country’s economic and military ties with Israel continue to deepen. As Israel’s links to Brazil’s domestic inequality, agribusiness, and state violence become clearer, Palestinian solidarity grows.
Jair Bolsonaro, the fascist who will probably be elected president of Brazil in the second election round this Sunday, is an enthusiastic supporter of Israel who says he will follow Donald Trump’s example and move his nation’s embassy there from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bolsonaro’s extreme views have divided Brazil’s 120,000-strong Jewish community, the 9th-largest in the world.
Brazil is not interested in having a right wing settler envoy as Israel’s ambassador and Israel won’t take “No” for an answer. A diplomatic crisis has been unfolding between the two countries since last August when Netanyahu publicly announced the appointment of Dani Dayan, the former head the Yesha Council from 2007 to 2013, as Israel’s next ambassador to Brazil — without first consulting the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.