Flavio Bolsonaro Pledges Jerusalem Embassy if Elected

The “Generation of Truth” antisemitism conference in Jerusalem, hosted by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry and led by Minister Amichai Chikli, was billed as a global gathering to confront antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Brazilian presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro attended with a large entourage, according to The Jerusalem Post’s Zvika Klein, who interviewed him on the sidelines. The conference was presented as a serious, official international summit, with roundtables on global antisemitism and the surge after October 7.

In the interview, Flavio Bolsonaro said he wants Brazil back in Israel’s corner and wants Brazil’s foreign policy moved away from the worldview of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He framed Lula as aligned with “dictators” and singled out Iran as a symbol of the current administration’s direction. He described his camp’s foreign policy as values-driven, anchored in “Judeo-Christian values,” and said Brazil should partner with democracies and countries that share a worldview centered on national sovereignty, free speech, and conservative social norms. Asked what Brazil could do to fight antisemitism, he told the Post that the best thing would be to remove Lula.

The Post’s account places this message against the recent Brazil-Israel dispute. In February 2024, Lula compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust. Israel declared him persona non grata, and Brazil recalled its ambassador. By May 2024, Lula had removed the ambassador from the post. The Post reports that Brazil later moved closer to the activist state bloc and pushed legal and diplomatic pressure on Israel, including steps related to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The conference also drew criticism, according to the Post, including over the presence of certain far-right European figures and over the way the event blurred the line between fighting antisemitism and building political alliances. Such questions call for honest testimony about who is present and why, a principle captured in Proverbs 18:17.

The Post reported in December, citing Reuters, that Flavio Bolsonaro said his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, had backed him for a presidential run next year. Flavio is seen as a potential heir to a Brazilian right left without its former leader, and in Jerusalem he used the family name while presenting himself as a future head of state. His younger brother, Eduardo, also spoke at the event. According to the Post, Eduardo said support for Israel is “the right thing to do,” a principle he placed above negotiation and day-to-day politics.

Flavio Bolsonaro called Brazil a “Christian, Jewish country” built on shared values, and he spoke about family, faith, human rights, democracy, and freedom of speech. The Post notes that this rhetoric comes as Latin America is changing religiously. A new Pew Research Center report, published the week before the interview, found that Catholic affiliation declined over the past decade in six large countries surveyed: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. In each, the Catholic share fell by at least nine percentage points, while the share of religiously unaffiliated adults rose by at least seven points.

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