Although the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT – Workers’ Party) has already made harsh declarations against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, little has been made to end trades of Brazilian products like petrol used in tanks and planes to attack the Palestinian population.
“Premeditated genocide”, said Lula, to describe the situation in the Palestinian territory, during a trip to France. The special presidential advisor Celso Amorim confirmed last week to legislators that Brazil is reviewing agreements with Israel. He was talking about military matters, and discarded at first cutting diplomatic and commercial ties with the Zionist State, stating that the measure would jeopardize Brazilians in the country.
Bruno Huberman, International Relations professor at PUC-SP, rejects the argument, although he recognizes that consular assistance to the Brazilian population in Israel would be, in fact, one of the main challenges. On the other hand, he suggests practical solutions.
“Brazilians that usually use consular services in Tel Aviv could start using consular services in the Brazilian embassy for Palestine”, said the professor, reminding that Brazil already offers this kind of service in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. “If there are consular services in Ramallah and East Jerusalem, that allows easy access for the Brazilian population that lives in the territory, officially known as Israel, I think it would be a good alternative”, analyzed Huberman.
Another political analyst and International Relations professor, Bruno Lima Rocha, believes that the Brazilian government’s resistance in cutting relations with the Zionist regime is related to the domestic policy.
“Contrary to other moments, such as during the Lebanon invasions in 1982 and 1985, the Six-Day War [1967], the Yom Kippur war [1973], Arab-Israeli wars or Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people, Brazil didn’t have in the past so many legislators that hold Zionist and evangelical views. It is just like the far right wing in the Western World today, 100% pro-Israel. It’s a new configuration of the extreme right”, analyzed Lima Rocha.
He considers that the Brazilian position is similar to the dubious attitude of many Arab countries that, in the last decades, improved its relations, mainly commercial, with Israel. “Lula is making exactly what Arab and Muslims states do. How are we going to demand from a Latin-American western country a stronger position than theirs”, questions the professor, who supports cutting ties between Brazil and Israel, because of the current genocide. He says that the government could at least try freezing trade temporarily, given Lula´s declarations.
On the other hand, the organized civil society in popular movements, political parties and intellectual circles, artists and academics, ask for the federal government to adopt measures to pressure Israel to stop the Palestinian genocide. Amongst them, cancelling trade, above all regarding petrol, besides boycotting Israeli products. Last Sunday (15), demonstrations around the Brazilian country urged president Lula’s government to end relations with the zionist regime.
But what commercial deals are we talking about?
In 2024, Brazil was the 12° biggest Israeli commercial partner, representing 2.1% of all the Zionist regime’s deals, and its second-biggest partner in the American continent, only behind the United States.
During the same year, Brazil exported to Israel US$ 725.1 million in products, 9.5% higher than 2023, and imported US$ 1.150,8 million, 14.9% less than 2023. Even with a reduction in imports and increase in exports, the Brazilian trade balance with Israel is historically in deficit and was US$ 425,7 million down in 2024.
The main product exported by Brazil to Israel in 2024 was petrol, which represented 30% of the sales, followed by beef (23%) and soy (11%). On the other hand, pesticides, organic and chemical fertilizers represents 44% of Israeli sales to Brazil, followed by aircrafts and components for airplanes, which totalizes 4.8% of the exports.
In between January to May 2025 there was deficit, with a negative result of US$ 308 million to Brazil. During this time, Brazilian exportations to Israel reached US$ 219 million, while importations gathered US$ 528 million.
For the economist Diana Chaib, cutting ties have always economic consequences, even though impacts can vary according to the dependency between countries. “Israel is an important partner, but not central. In 2024, the country represented only 0.4% of all Brazilian exports. In other words, commercial trades with Israel are too small in proportional terms, and severing these trades would have a limited impact over the Brazilian economy in a bigger picture”, highlighted Chaib, still considering that Brazil would have conditions to seek for new markets to products exported to Israel, with relative ease.
For Israel, Chaib says that “Brazil was the 12° biggest commercial partner, with emphasis on essential commodities such as petrol and food. It indicates a bigger dependency of Israel in relation to certain Brazilian products”, she points out.
“The point that we need to consider is that the direct impact would be more political than economic. Cutting ties would send a strong diplomatic message, aligned to human right principles and international pressure for a ceasefire”, says the economist.
Diplomacy at risk
Beyond commerce trading, Brazil has agreements of military cooperation with the Israel. In April 2022, former president Bolsonaro signed a deal for mutual cooperation against organized. It includes intelligence, technology of information and communication.
In May 2024, Brazilian President Lula removed Ambassador Frederico Meyer from Tel Aviv after the Israeli Foreign Ministry declared Lula “persona non grata.” The crisis began when Lula criticized Israeli military operations in Gaza, comparing them to Hitler’s actions. The Brazilian ambassador was then taken to a Holocaust Museum event without prior notice, causing public embarrassment. Meyer was transferred to Geneva, and the diplomatic representation in Israel remains without an ambassador. Celso Amorim described Meyer’s departure as a “dramatic” message diplomatically.
