A group of 61 federal deputies wants the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to classify Hamas as a “terrorist organization.” The objective is for the Chamber to formalize a request for Itamaraty. Last Saturday, the 7th, the terrorist group attacked Israeli territory.
“The official declaration of Hamas as a terrorist organization is extremely important so that the Brazilian government can take firm measures against the organization”, says the statement filed this Wednesday, 11, by parliamentarians. The document is part of the pressure from the opposition, which has already met with the Israeli ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonshine, as shown by Coluna do Estadão.
The indication is a suggestion and does not need to be voted on by the House plenary. The document is delivered to the Board of Directors, who may or may not forward it. If it reaches the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, the document also does not trigger any type of obligation.
Federal deputy Rodolfo Nogueira (PL-MS) leads the request. The majority of signatories, 42, are from the PL and two are former ministers of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government – Eduardo Pazuello (RJ) and Mário Frias (SP). Carla Zambelli (SP), Gustavo Gayer (GO), Bia Kicis (DF), Nikolas Ferreira (MG) and Luiz Philippe de Orleans and Bragança (SP) also signed the nomination.
Republicans, Podemos, MDB, PSD, União Brasil, PP and Novo are the acronyms of the other signatory deputies. The president of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front, Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), also signs the document.
The war that has left more than 1,500 people dead in the Gaza Strip has fueled political polarization in Brazil. The opposition criticizes the government for the lack of more emphatic statements about the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas. The note released by Itamaraty on the deaths of Brazilians in conflicts does not mention the paramilitary organization.
Ministers Paulo Pimenta (Secretariat of Social Communication) and Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) spoke out against the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group. In 2021, they signed a statement refuting the British government’s gesture of giving the Islamic Resistance Movement-Hamas the designation of a “terrorist organization”.
Itamaraty says Hamas’ assessment will be debated at the UN
Also on Wednesday, Ambassador Carlos Sérgio Sobral Duarte, secretary for Africa and the Middle East, said that Brazil’s classification of Hamas as a “terrorist group” will be debated at the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Today, the entity does not use this nomenclature for the Islamic fundamentalist organization.
The ambassador said that the Brazilian government’s position was “very clear and very strong” and that, for now, there is no date for the next Council meeting. According to him, another ambassador, Sérgio França Danese, who is Brazil’s permanent representative at the UN, is engaged in consultations to “obtain consensus” among the members of the collegiate.
After pressure, Lula makes new statement
This October, Brazil is presiding over the Security Council. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has been criticized for the lack of an emphatic condemnation of Hamas. Faced with this pressure, the president made a new statement, addressed to the UN secretary general, calling for the release of children held hostage by Hamas, a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and “international humanitarian intervention”.
“Hamas needs to release the Israeli children who were kidnapped from their families. Israel needs to stop the bombing so that Palestinian children and their mothers leave the Gaza Strip across the border with Egypt. There needs to be a minimum of humanity in the insanity of war. An international humanitarian intervention is urgent. A ceasefire in defense of Israeli and Palestinian children is urgent,” Lula wrote on social media.
The first group of Brazilians rescued in Israel arrived in the early hours of Wednesday on a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane. The flight brought 211 people repatriated. There are Brazilian hostages in Gaza, but they have not yet been identified.
