Antisemitism and terrorism

It is widely reported that many political parties in several diaspora countries are anti-Semitic or at least despise anti-Semitism against Jews. In the Brazilian case, during the government with a more conservative inclination led by former president Jair Bolsonaro between 2018 and 2022, Brazil’s rapprochement with the State of Israel and the United States of America was deeper and more fruitful for both countries.

Trade relations between the two countries are more significant and have an impact on the national economy in the agricultural sectors of fertilizers, fertilizers and technologies such as irrigation and agriculture, which have considerably improved the performance of Brazilian agricultural potential, improving production for domestic consumption and for exports. of food, Brazil mainly exports food and natural resources to Israel, according to the newspaper Valor Econômico in international trade Israel only represents around 0.37%, which greatly benefits Israel, however during the last 26 years, according to Observatory of Complexity Economic (OEC), Israel’s exports to Brazil increased at an annualized rate of 8.69%, from US$ 172 million in 1995 to US$ 1.5 billion in 2021, this last year under the command of former president from Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro.

On January 25, 2019, at 12:28 pm, in Brumadinho in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil, the mining company Vale S.A. is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the largest logistics operators in the country. The dam at the Córrego do Feijão Mine, owned by the mining company Vale S.A., collapsed, causing the death of 272 people and spreading ore waste across the Paraopeba River basin, which, according to Brazilian media reports, no one was punished for the disaster. During the Brumadinho tragedy, a delegation with around 130 soldiers from the military forces of the State of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, left Jerusalem in Israel towards the site of the tragedy in search and rescue of the missing Brazilians with the hope of finding people alive. victims of that disaster.

The collaboration that Israel offers to Brazil covers various sectors and institutions of Brazilian society with humanitarian, military and technological aid for human development, in addition to the military and economic area as well as public security to pacify areas of Brazilian social conflict, such as in places with a high rate of violence and crime in several regions of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Despite the positive indices of commercial, technological and military relations between Brazil and Israel, according to data from the Jerusalem Post of November 13, 2023 and data from the Brazilian Jewish community, there was a 961% increase in incidents of anti-Semitism according to data from the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (CONIB), after the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, with more than 1,300 dead on the Israeli side, October 7 was the worst terrorist attack in the world since September 11 which left 2,606 dead in New York, totaling 2,996 deaths including Pentagon developments within the United States of America.

A Jewish merchant Herta Breslauer in Arraial D’Ajuda in Porto Seguro in the State of Bahia in Brazil, was the victim of an anti-Semitic attack inside her commercial store on a Friday, in which her store was broken into and the anti-Semitic woman, whose name is Ana Maria Leiva Blanco, who comes from Chile, calling her a Zionist Jew who is a murderer of Palestinian children, in addition to reporting that she suffered physical attacks. The Brazilian Israeli Confederation (CONIB) was informed of the recorded video of the aggression circulating on social media and denounced it as an act of anti-Semitism. Brazilian justice prohibited Chilean Ana Maria Leiva Blanco from leaving Brazil to complete investigations into the anti-Semitism case.

After the current government came in with a leaning towards the neoliberal left, cases of anti-Semitism have increased considerably, increasing within the party and current government itself, a notable episode is the case of professor and politician José Genuíno Neto who has a degree in History and is history professor, linked to the PT Workers’ Party, when participating in a broadcast of the newspaper Diário Centro do Mundo (DCM), defended a boycott of Jewish companies and “companies linked to the State of Israel”, and obtained support from the journalist Breno Altman, the latter of whom compared Jews to rats and other barbarities he writes about Jews, journalist Breno Altman, who claims to be Jewish, is the founder of the newspaper Opera Mundi.

The Brazilian Israeli Confederation (CONIB) did not hesitate, and came out of passivity, and accused journalist Breno Altman of anti-Semitism for denouncing the actions of the Israeli government and the racist nature of Zionist ideology, Brazilian personalities such as politician Gleise Hoffmann, affiliated with the Party of Workers defended journalist Breno Altman, we are witnessing a destructive feeling in current Brazilian politics that puts Jews and the Brazilian Jewish community at risk. Faced with such a scenario with a dizzying growth of selective hatred against Jews, without evaluating what the Hamas terrorist group does against Israel, is worrying, as they are potential factors in the ideological generation of anti-Semitism.

Like what happens in the United States of America, where the website to combat anti-Semitism Anti Defamation League (ADF) was created, CONIB in Brazil created a platform to combat anti-Semitism that until then did not exist in Brazilian territory, anti-Semitism was hidden in Brazilian politics and geopolitics, which is being revealed and unveiled, the website (COMBATE AO ANTISSEMITISMO) to combat antisemitism that CONIB created is as follows: https://combateaoantissemitismo.org.br/

José Genoino Neto’s statements were classified as “anti-Semitic” by the Brazilian Israeli Confederation (CONIB), part of the team of the current Brazilian government, headed by the Workers’ Party PT, minister Luiz Marinho (Labor and Employment) and minister Paulo Teixeira (Agrarian Development) openly came out in defense of the former federal deputy and president of PT José Genoino, these actions only reveal an anti-Semitic and, by extension, anti-Semitic sentiment against the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Israel and the Palestinian people are going through a tense and desperate moment for both parties, the current president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva is in Egypt, Lula’s meeting with the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah Khalil Al-Sisi, for the Brazil will be strategic in strengthening relations between Brazil and Egypt, which served as a base for all Brazilians who managed to escape the war against the terrorist group Hamas. However, we consider it strange that the president has not visited Israel, Egypt’s neighbor, at least so far, as a series of anti-Semitic attacks are being spread in Brazilian territory.

We Jews do not deny that sometimes the State of Israel commits excesses in the political, religious and military spheres, in dissonance with the Jewish values of the Jewish community in the diaspora such as in the United States of America, Canada, England, among other countries with more developed democratic values. and solid like many diaspora countries, we can never deny the advances in Human Rights in terms of the separation between State and religion and the beneficial secularization of many Western societies in favor of inclusion, coexistence, multiculturalism, inclusion, plurality and humanism.

However, as we said above, the State of Israel suffered the biggest terrorist attack, second only to the biggest terrorist attack of this millennium that occurred on North American territory, in which the United States of America also had to take some fundamental actions for its national security in combating terrorist groups, no nation is exempt from ideological radicalism, politics that border on terrorism or massacres of innocent human lives. The survival of the State of Israel is largely due to financial and military aid from the largest capitalist and military power in the world, the United States of America, proof of this is data widely disseminated by institutional and journalistic bodies that after the Second World War (1939 -1945), between 1946 and 2023, the United States of America gave Israel $124 billion in military and defense aid.

According to data made available by the Jewish website American Jewish Committee, it states that of North American Jewish university students, around 4 in 10 (44%) have felt the daily effects of anti-Semitism, and that a quarter (25%) or 1/4 of Jews Americans say they have avoided wearing, carrying, or displaying things that identify them as Jewish for fear of anti-Semitism, just as about 26% of Jews report avoiding expressing opinions about Israel on college campuses or with classmates for fear of anti-Semitism. and 25% say they were told they could not miss school on Jewish holidays.

The effects of wars are devastating for any people, and when it comes to the Jewish people, anti-Semitism appears in different ways, such as in virtual reality with digital social networks, such as on university campuses, at work, in the neighborhoods where they live, in addition to the route they take. on their journeys to take care of elementary issues such as public transport, markets, hospitals, among many other social environments as well.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas or any nature and type of wars and conflicts is not in the Jewish interest, but the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism is a watchword for Jewish existence, and this duty must be imposed on all governments that value the security of democracy, freedom, multiculturalism and human plurality, finally the peaceful coexistence between different peoples regardless of their beliefs or disbeliefs, religions, values, political and economic vision and so on, thinking different and diverse is an intrinsic human characteristic. Jews want to have the right to study, work, maintain their Jewish identity and/or faith, leisure, solidarity, charity, contribute to scientific, technological and philosophical development in the societies in which they are inserted, whether in the diaspora or in the State of Israel, this is one of the concepts of Tikkun Olam in Judaism.