Why Brazil backed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

Brazil’s decision to support an initiative against Israel at the International Court of Justice divided opinions domestically and drew criticism from the editorial pages of the country’s largest newspapers. The case, filed by South Africa in December 2023, alleges that the state of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

One of the main arguments used by critics is that the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva broke the tradition of balance and moderation with which Brazilian diplomacy has historically approached the Israel-Palestine issue.

In an open letter on January 18, a group of more than 100 Brazilian business owners and public figures argued it could “inadvertently reinforce a distorted view of the events, simplifying a complex reality.” More than 18,000 people have since co-signed the letter.

One day before, left-leaning public figures published their own open letter, saying that the defense of human rights is enshrined in the Constitution and is not new to the country.

Diplomacy experts consulted by The Brazilian Report say Brazil’s position should not negatively affect the country’s standing on the world stage. The impact of Lula’s decision is more likely to be felt domestically.

Several countries have called for a ceasefire, citing possible war crimes by Israel. But the action at the International Court of Justice in The Hague did not have the support of Western powers. Countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Germany criticized the South African case. Support came mainly from Latin American and Arab countries.

More than 24,000 people have already been killed in the Israeli response to the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, which left 1,200 dead and 240 hostages. Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at the University of London and an expert in this kind of war data, told the BBC that the current war “is unprecedented both in the number of people killed and in indiscriminate killing” compared to others that have taken place in Gaza since 2008.

The accusation of genocide, which involves a deliberate attempt to exterminate a people, gains special complexity in the case of Israel, because the international convention on this type of crime was created precisely as a response to the genocide of the Jewish people in World War II.

No surprises

Celso Lafer, who served as foreign affairs minister in 1992 and then again from 2001 to 2002...