Bolsonaro breaks with tradition | He visited the wall of …

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday became the first foreign head of state to visit the Western Wall with an Israeli prime minister, breaking with a diplomatic tradition.

Bolsonaro visited with Benjamin Netanyahu this sacred place of Judaism located in the old city of Jerusalem. In the rain, the Brazilian leader, wearing a yarmulke, put both his hands on the old stones, while Netanyahu did the same on his left, then tilted his head for several seconds.

This symbolic gesture, eight days before the Israeli parliamentary elections, was seen as a support for the outgoing Prime Minister's campaign. For decades, foreign leaders have avoided appearing with an Israeli leader in front of the Wailing Wall in order not to position themselves on issues of sovereignty.

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was the first time that a state leader was visiting the site with a prime minister.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most difficult issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Although US President Donald Trump visited the site in May 2017, he was accompanied on this occasion by Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz, not an Israeli leader. Trump has already broken with decades of international consensus and US diplomacy to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, led the way in Bolsonaro when, on March 21, he became the highest US official to visit the wall with an Israeli prime minister. It was the latest in a series of Trump administration pro-Israel initiatives that have multiplied unfavorable measures for Palestinians in parallel.

Bolsonaro, called "the trump of the tropics", has been fully aligned with the Republican administration since taking office on Jan. 1.

The Wailing Wall is located in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967 and annexed in 1980, in a decision not recognized by the international community.

Israel considers Jerusalem, its sector is understood, as its "indivisible" capital. For the Israelis, the sovereignty of the wall has never been questioned and even its conquest of 1967 is celebrated as a liberation.

Palestinians, on the other hand, want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they aspire to. Since December 2017, they have suspended their relations with the Trump administration.

In another initiative that follows in the footsteps of the United States, Bolsonaro announced during his campaign his intention to move the Brazilian Embbady to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. With this measure, the right-wing leader wants to please the influential evangelical group, closely linked to Israel and largely contributing to its victory. But, on the other hand, he does not want to lose markets in the Arab countries, provoking the outrage of his powerful allies in the agri-food world. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of slaughtered meat according to the Muslim rite.

Therefore, upon his arrival in Israel on Sunday, he announced the opening in Jerusalem of an office dedicated to economic affairs, but he avoided mentioning the transfer of the embbady. This, however, was enough to alert the Palestinians. Amar Hijazi, Deputy Foreign Minister, said the Palestinians had called their ambbadador to Brazil for consultations "to badess the new bases of relations between the two countries". He also denounces a "violation" of international law resulting, in his view, from pressure exerted by the United States and its allies.

"We do not want to offend anyone," Bolsonaro told the Brazilian press. "We simply want the Palestinians to respect our autonomy" of decision. The Bolsonaro tour in Israel does not initially include visits to the Palestinian territories, what the Palestinian ambbadador to Brasilia had offered him, Ibrahim Mohame Khalil Alzeben, but according to the government, the badessment has started in recent hours. As stated by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in a statement, the ambbadador was summoned to the Ramalá consultations because the opening of an office in Jerusalem "constitutes a violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, as well as that an acceptance of American and Israeli pressures ".

Bolsonaro would follow Trump and move the Tel Aviv embbady to Jerusalem, but on the recommendation of the army and diplomats, in order to avoid the reactions of the Arab League, he opened a commercial office.