Ramallah - A senior Palestinian official condemned Friday Brazilian far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s announcement that he would move his country’s Israel embassy to occupied Jerusalem.
“These are provocative and illegal steps that will only destabilise security and stability in the region,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, told AFP.
Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro had earlier tweeted that “as previously stated during our campaign, we intend to transfer the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to [occupied] Jerusalem.”
“Israel is a sovereign state and we shall duly respect that,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hailed it as a “historic” move. “I congratulate my friend Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro for his intention to move the Brazilian embassy to [occupied] Jerusalem, a historic, correct and exciting step!”
Reversing long-standing US policy, the Trump administration transferred the American embassy on May 14. Guatemala and Paraguay followed suit, though the latter announced last month it would return its embassy to Tel Aviv.
