Michael Fox [Narration]: This is a pro-Donald Trump rally on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo, Brazil. It’s an example of how Israel’s US-backed war on Gaza is playing out in South America’s largest country: the left staunchly in defense of Palestine, the far-right defending Israel and the United States. Both sides have become symbols for their separate causes inside Brazil…

Mauricio Santoro, Political Scientist: In Brazilian domestic politics, people are becoming more identified with Israel or with Palestinian, with the Arab political movements. And it’s more or less a right-left wing fight.

So conservative politicians in Brazil nowadays, they appear in public with Israeli flags of Israeli T-shirts, because Israel is very important to the Brazilian evangelicals, and we’re talking about 30% of the Brazilian population. It’s a very important political group for the presidential election next year. And on the left, the more traditional view is that Brazil should support Palestine.

Michael Fox [Narration]: In mid June thousands of people hit the streets of Sao Paulo in defense of Palestine and in opposition to Israel’s inhumane war on Gaza.

Just days later, evangelicals held the massive March for Jesus, on the same Paulista Avenue. Countless people wore Israeli flags. Among them was Sao Paulo state governor Tarcisio Genro. He is also the most likely conservative candidate to run for the Brazilian presidency next year.

It did not go over well in the country’s Arab community. Brazil has the largest population of people descended from the Middle East in all of Latin America.

Márcio França, Brazilian Minister of Entrepreneurship: The governor of São Paulo humiliated the entire Arab community yesterday. Syrians. Lebanese. We’re talking about millions of people. This is a grave mistake, which has nothing to do with the war. São Paulo is a Brazilian state.

Michael Fox [Narration]: The numbers of evangelicals in Brazil have been rising almost exponentially in recent years. They were a huge force in the election of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. And they’re playing an increasingly prominent role in far-right politics in Brazil. For them, the Israeli flag is a symbol. It was front and center at last year’s CPAC Brasil conference.

Jose Fabio Faustino, Devout Evangelical: This Israeli flag… We are from a country, Brazil, that is more than 80%, more than 90% Christian. And the word of God, which is the Bible, says that I will bless those who bless you. So we use the Israeli flag because we bless Israel. We believe that is the Holy Land. That they are the Lord’s chosen people. And we are descended from the olive tree. And we love Israel.

Michael Fox [Narration]: Brazilian Middle East analyst Monique Goldfeld says that in Brazil, the Israel-Palestine conflict has really become a question of internal politics over the last 10 years. 

Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld, Senior Fellow, Brazilian International Relations Center: We have a political right that is closely linked to evangelical groups that have appropriated an image of Israel that doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of Israel. I lived in Israel long enough to believe it’s quite different. But they’re using its symbols… The Star of David, the Israeli flag, and political demonstrations. And this has become associated with Jair Bolsonaro.

Michael Fox [Narration]: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is the face of the far-right movement in Brazil. He’s Catholic, but he has deep ties to evangelicals. His wife is devout. While in office, Bolsonaro boasted of opening up a new era of relations with Israel. He traveled there, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and opened up an office for Brazilian trade in Jerusalem.

Bolsonaro, however, is now wearing an ankle bracelet. He’s accused of attempting to orchestrate a coup to remain in power, and is currently standing trial in Brazil. U.S. president Donald Trump responded in defense of his ally, slapping Brazil with 50% tariffs for its lawsuit against Bolsonaro. 

In a shocking partisan attack on Brazil’s independent judicial system, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stripped U.S. visas from the eight Supreme Court justices the United States believes are antagonistic to Bolsonaro. Rubio left Bolsonaro’s allies on the court untouched. 

Meanwhile, many Brazilians have been marching in the streets against the United States, Donald Trump and in defense of Palestine.

Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld, Middle-East Analyst: Above all, since the war in Gaza, but even before that. It was very common to see keffiyeh or the Palestinian flag at left-wing demonstrations.”

Barbara Sinedino, Rio de Janeiro State Union of Professional Educators: They are annihilating a people through the use of force. Today the Gaza Strip is a humanitarian calamity, because of the Israeli state, which was always supported by U.S. imperialism. But now, it’s even worse. The Trump administration has just opened it all up. Trump wants to make a luxury resort out of the Gaza Strip and he wants to kill the people. He wants to destroy the Palestinian people. So we are here, standing up in the streets.

We need to break political, economic, military relations with Israel. We have to break diplomatic, cultural and sporting relations with Israel. We did this in the era of Apartheid in South Africa and the international blockade was really important in ending apartheid.

Michael Fox [Narration]: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hasn’t broken relations with Israel. But ties between the two countries are at a low. Lula has repeatedly condemned the violence in Palestine.

SOT9: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian President [CLIP]: Absolutely nothing justifies the terrorist actions perpetrated by Hamas. But we cannot remain indifferent to the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The solution to this conflict will only be possible with the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Michael Fox [Narration]: Analyst Monique Goldfeld explains how Israel’s war on Gaza is shaping domestic Brazilian politics, similar to the United States… Support for Israel or Palestine lines up along political lines. There’s a powerful evangelical lobby pushing a pro-Israel agenda.

But there are many differences. The number of Brazilians descended from the Middle East is three times larger than in the U.S. And the Jewish population is tiny. 

Monique Sochaczweski Goldfeld: The United States has 300 million people, and 6 million Jews. Brazil has 200 million inhabitants, and 120,000 Jews. It’s a very small community and it’s a community that doesn’t have a lot of political weight, although there are some Brazilian politicians, who are Jewish who are very prominent.

Michael Fox [Narration]: But far beyond the Jewish community… for evangelicals and the country’s far-right, Israel has become a symbol for Jesus, God, religious devotion, and the evangelical movement.

[CLIP]
Reporter: Why are you wearing the Israeli flag?
Protester: Because we are Christians, just like Israel.

Michael Fox [Narration]: While the Left is waving the flag for the Palestinian cause. In a June poll, over half of Brazilians had a disfavorable opinion of Israel. The same month, activists held the largest marches in defense of Palestine that Brazil had ever seen. Tens of thousands in the streets. They say they will not be silent. The situation in Gaza is too dire. The suffering is too great. The thousands of innocent deaths… too many. 

While Brazil has long defended the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist… that does not mean the country will be silent over Israel’s violence in Gaza. Brazil recently announced plans to join the genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. It’s a sign of Brazil’s support for Palestine, both in and outside the government. 

Despite the far-right’s embrace of Israel and the United States, the majority of Brazilians are standing against Israel’s attack on Gaza and the on-going occupation. They are standing in defense of Palestine.