Report says Brazil’s arms trade with Israel has continued, though some deals are suspended

Despite President Lula’s public condemnation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Brazil and Israel have long cooperated militarily, including in arms trade. According to the campaign group CAAT, much of that trade has continued throughout the war, although some elements have been suspended.

CAAT reports that Brazil bought $17.1 million in arms and ammunition from Israel in 2023, while sending $4.47 million in equipment to Tel Aviv. Brazil maintains several military cooperation agreements with Israel. The most recent, signed in March 2019, covers training and knowledge exchange between defence institutions in both countries. Brazil has also signed a cooperation agreement on public security and the “fight against organized crime,” focusing on police intelligence and technology applied to public security. CAAT says this agreement is of particular concern to Brazilians in Black neighbourhoods and peripheral areas, where, in CAAT’s account, Brazil is already accused of using disproportionate violence under the banner of the “fight against narcotrafficking.”

CAAT also states that a group of Brazilian mayors attended the MuniExpo urban conference in Tel Aviv in June 2025. CAAT says the event served to deepen ties with Israeli security companies and to import an urban security model that it describes as based on apartheid and colonial control. In CAAT’s view, this strengthens security ties with Israel while deepening the militarization of Brazil’s local public security forces.

Israel’s largest arms producer, Elbit Systems, has two subsidiaries in Brazil, Ares Aerospacial e Defesa and AEL Sistema. According to CAAT, they were to supply the Brazilian Army with the Atmos 2000, a 155mm self-propelled wheeled artillery howitzer. The deal began with the delivery of two howitzers in 2017 for a two-year trial period, and a further 34 units were planned at a cost of up to $140 million. CAAT says the deal has been suspended since Israel’s war began after Hamas’s attacks of October 7. CAAT reports that Atmos 2000 vehicles were recently used in a violent border clash between Cambodia and Thailand that left 13 civilians dead and 63 wounded, and displaced thousands. A report by the group Stop the Wall, cited by CAAT, says these vehicles have also been used to destroy large parts of Gaza. That report further states that the budget for these armaments came from the most recent “growth acceleration program” (PAC) approved by the Workers’ Party government. The Brazilian Political Science Association and the Brazilian Defense Studies Association have criticized the amount of PAC money directed to military spending and the Armed Forces as disproportionate to the national budget for education and health.

Stop the Wall also reports that Brazil’s Air Force (FAB) signed a contract with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for maintenance and logistical support of two Heron-I unmanned aerial vehicles. The non-competitive award was worth R$86 million, roughly $16.1 million, and covers 58 months and 2,417 flight hours of maintenance, technical visits, engine overhauls and spare parts. Stop the Wall argues that the deal was questionable from the start, because the drones were first bought by the Federal Police but were unsuitable for surveillance of the Brazilian border region. Even some defenders of Brazil’s arms industry have questioned the purchase, noting that the Brazilian company EMBRAER can produce similar technology.

CAAT names two Brazilian companies it says profit directly from the war in Gaza: the state-owned refinery Petrobras and the metal company Villares Metals. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, crude oil shipments to Israel were supplied from Petrobras oil fields. CAAT says this supply services the Israeli military and its energy-intensive operations.

An article by the Brazilian news website The Intercept, cited by CAAT, reports that Villares Metals exported steel bars to two Israeli arms manufacturers, IWI and IMI Systems, during the war in Gaza. The shipments, from Sumaré in São Paulo, included a small batch in January worth $441 and a larger one in April valued at about $6,228. Critics have said these transactions contradict President Lula’s characterization of Israel’s actions as genocide, since such shipments could contribute to Israel’s arms industry, a point that bears on honest dealing (Proverbs 11:1). CAAT notes that legal mechanisms exist to block or regulate this type of trade, but states that the Brazilian federal government has not used them.

Source: Read the original report