The State of Israel supplied weapons and training to the dictatorship, not only in Brazil but throughout Latin America.
By: Soraya Misleh
While in Brazil, on March 25, the Bolsonaro government called for commemorations for the 1964 coup – which it would later euphemistically call “remembrance” – Palestinians in Gaza were faced with another Israeli bombing.
On March 31, the day we remember the 55 years since the beginning of the exception period, Bolsonaro traveled to meet his Zionist ally Benjamin Netanyahu.
In addition to stronglyly repudiating both events – the Israeli offensive that foreshadows a new massacre and the apology of the coup – it is important to disclose that Israel and the dictatorship in Brazil have historical connections. This is a chapter still hidden in the unfortunate pages of our history.
This is what Israeli lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack reveals in an article published in the blog + 972 Magazine.
According to him, the Embassy of Israel presented a document praising the swift planning and implementation of the coup of April 1, 1964. According to the vision expressed in the document, “led, for 24 hours, not only the fall of Goulart (the president of Brazil at the time), but also the suppression of all the leftist elements […] Brazil is today in a state of transition that can be defined as a military dictatorship with a parliamentary facade “.
Mack relates that a short time later, on June 16, 1965, Aryeh Eshel ,Israel’s Foreign Ministry Affairs , Latin American Affairs Director , wrote that he hoped “that the current regime in Brazil” would endure. The activist stresses that documents of the same agency in the official Zionist archives reveal Israel’s reasons to support the dictatorship.
In addition to weapons sales – the Brazilian military carried, for example, Uzi submachine guns – “Israeli diplomats in Brazil concentrated their efforts on hasbara [public relations].” The propaganda placed the Zionist State as a partner in the fight against “global terrorism”. Among the false ideas in that direction, that the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO) would be involved in the training of guerrilla groups in Brazil.
Israel also made “repeated conversations about moving the Brazilian Embassy to Jerusalem” -as seen at the moment, with Bolsonaro, since the election campaign-.
Another hidden aspect, denounced by Mack in his article, is that only four months after the military coup, Brazil signed its first nuclear pact with Israel, which sent scientists to act in national territory.
Complementary agreements were signed in 1966, 1967 and 1974. In 1975, that cooperation faced a decline, “partly due to the desire of the Brazilian regime to minimize its relations with Israel,” which would have been motivated by a “disappointment” of the dictatorship. with “the kind of assistance we proposed, which was not exactly what they were looking for”. His claim is that the Zionist State would have leaked information about an attempt by Brazil to sell nuclear equipment and uranium to Iraq, always according to Mack
With weakened relations, in the same year Brazil voted in favor of Resolution 3.379 of the General Assembly of the United Nations that considered Zionism as “a form of racism and racial discrimination”, which was annulled in 1991.
By telegram of May 28, 1975, also in agreement with the activist already mentioned, the ambassador of Israel at the time, observed that “Brazil’s objective in its ties with the countries of the Middle East is totally pragmatic and focuses on promoting the necessary economic, commercial and financial interests defined by the President. They need to cultivate ties with Arab countries, especially with oil producers. ”
There is another point that needs to be brought up -in the correct sense-, at this moment: the Palestinian cause, on principle, is linked with all the struggles for justice and as such was treated by those who confronted the civic-military dictatorship in the country who gave their lives for democratic freedoms. A symbol of the international struggle against exploitation and oppression.
Israel, on the other hand, has been an ally and has historically contributed, due to its colonial and racist nature, to authoritarian and bloodthirsty regimes. Thus, it is not surprising that those who advocate the coup raise their flag.
Unmasked complicity
With the Bolsonaro government, even the “pragmatism” that marks Brazilian foreign policy is threatened. A separation between diplomacy and economic interests – which, in practice, transformed the country into the gateway of the Israeli arms industry and the fifth largest importer of Israeli military technology in the last 16 years.
Submission to US imperialism and historical complicity with the Zionist occupation are made explicit and advanced. On March 25, Trump recognized the “sovereignty of Israel” over the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied militarily since 1967. Days before, Bolsonaro met him at the White House. Following his position, the Brazilian government voted in the UN Human Rights Commission against the minimum of condemning the human rights violations in the occupation of the Golan and during 2018 in Gaza.
At the service of repression and genocide
Bolsonaro promises even more agreements with his Zionist ally. State governments continue today in the same direction: they acquire Israeli military technologies that serve repression, the criminalization of activists and social movements and, above all, the genocide of the poor, indigenous and black population of Brazil.
These technologies are tested on Palestinians on a daily basis. This is what was seen in the massive bombing of Gaza in 2008-2009, in 2012, in 2014. This is what we see now, in the air strikes and in the weekly offensives to the narrow Gaza Strip . Also in Israeli prisons, in which Palestinian political prisoners have suffered brutal violence and announced a hunger strike since April 1. Or in the colonial expansion that has lasted more than 70 years (since the Nakba, an Arabic term meaning catastrophe, in reference to the creation of the State of Israel through ethnic cleansing planned for Palestine).
The occupation makes a profit and is supported by the complicity of governments around the world: 70% of Israeli military technologies developed from tests on Palestinian human “guinea pigs” are destined for export.
Rejection from Brazil to Palestine
Under occupation, the Palestinians already announce protests against Bolsonaro’s visit . This comes at a very important moment of the resistance: a year ago the Great March of Return in Gaza began on March 30. The date symbolizes Earth Day for the Palestinians and is remembered worldwide since an Israeli massacre in Galilee in 1976, when the inhabitants – who make up the minority of those who remained in the former territories of 1948 – protested against colonial expansion and land annexations. The repression was violent and indiscriminately against men, women and children. As a result, six Palestinians were killed and hundreds were injured or imprisoned.
The Great Return March in Gaza happens every Friday, weekly. It vindicates the end of the inhumane siege to the Gaza strip , which already lasts 12 years, and the return to their lands of the millions of refugees. The demonstrations are violently repressed by Israel. The balance so far is more than 250 dead and 25,000 injured.
For this March 30, the Palestinians called millions to new protests. Israel, in addition to the bombings this week, positioned military forces along the barrier imposed on Gaza, in preparation for what is predicted as a new massacre, on the eve of the Zionist elections – which, as an evil joke, will happen on April 9, the day of the massacre in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin in 1948, one of the most remembered during the Nakba.
The Minister of Justice and candidate Ayelet Shaked, without any embarrassment, shocked the world by advocating fascism. While Zionism on the left promoted and organized ethnic cleansing throughout history but always sought a more pleasant rhetoric to the world, the far right is explicit, same as Bolsonaro.
Earth Day should serve to denounce and call for the main campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, throughout the world. In Brazil there were activities to highlight that date. In the capital São Paulo , the protest joined the clamor of those who live under occupation: No to Bolsonaro and Israel , Yes to a free Palestine .
In solidarity and in honor of the memory of those who fought against the dictatorship, of those tortured and murdered also with Zionist complicity, to embrace that cause of humanity is a matter of principle.
Article originally published at: https://www.cartacapital.com.br/mundo/bolsonaro-israel-e-a-ditadura-no-brasil/
Translation: Blas
