Earlier this month, far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited Israel, both to strengthen ties with the country and as a courtesy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Bolsonaro admires and has said he considers to be a “brother.”

On his agenda were visits to Yad Vashem and the Wailing Wall, meetings with Brazilians living in the country (an event that was later canceled due to security concerns) and talks on the possible transfer of the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The trip included many controversies, but the biggest was reserved for Bolsonaro’s visit to Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem.

Just before the visit, on March 30th, Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo wrote on his blog that Nazism is a “leftist phenomenon.” “We can easily see that Nazism had fundamental traits that recommend classifying it on the left side of the political spectrum,” wrote Araújo. “Nazism was anti-capitalist, anti-religious, collectivist, contrary to individual freedom, promoted censorship and control of thought by propaganda and brainwashing, contrary to the traditional structures of society. All this characterizes it as a left-wing movement.”

Full article at Jewish Currents’ website. Date of publication: 26/04/2019.