Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will visit Israel at the end of the month but he may not be able to deliver on a promise to move the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move opposed by military officers in his cabinet.
A government official told Reuters on Wednesday that no decision has been taken on the implementation of the embassy move, which could give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's standing a boost a week before the April 9 election.
"Something will have to be said about the embassy during the trip," said the official with knowledge of the matter but who spoke on condition of anonymity. He added, however, that a formal announcement might not be made during the March 31 to April 2 visit as the Israeli government had hoped for.
Israel declared Jerusalem its capital in 1949, extended Israeli law to the eastern portion of the city after the 1967 Six-Day War, and reiterated its claim to the unified city in 1980 with the passage of Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel. But the Palestinians want it to serve as the capital of a claimed Palestinian state, as well. Jerusalem was to be internationalized according to the U.N.'s 1947 partition plan, and its final status is to be determined in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks according to the Oslo Accords.
U.S. President Donald Trump broke with past administrations and recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017. Several months later he established an interim embassy in the city.
In an interview with Israel Hayom after being elected president, Bolsonaro reiterated his campaign pledge to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"Israel is a sovereign state. If you decide on your capital city, we will act in accordance. When I was asked during the campaign if I'll do it [relocate the embassy] when I was president, I said yes, and that you're the ones who decide on the capital of Israel, not other people," he said. He later confirmed this in a tweet.
Visiting Brazil for the Jan. 1 presidential inauguration, Netanyahu said Bolsonaro told him that moving the Brazilian Embassy to Jerusalem was a matter of "when, not if."
But in an interview in February, Vice President Hamilton Mourão, a retired Army general, told Reuters that Bolsonaro's plan to move the embassy was a bad idea because it would hurt Brazilian exports to Arab nations, including an estimated $5 billion in halal food sales.
The prospect of relocating the embassy has worried Brazilian exporters who fear losing access to major Arab markets for halal meats, which comply with Muslim dietary rules.
Brazil is one of the world's top halal meat exporters, and Islamic nations Iran and Egypt are its third and fourth biggest beef buyers, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association.
Bolsonaro's economic team and the country's powerful farm lobby have advised against the move. During last year's election campaign, Bolsonaro stated that Palestine is not a country and said he would close the Palestinian Embassy in Brasília.
