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Brazil Senate Establishes Official Israel Friendship Day Amid Growing Opposition to Lula’s Hostile Stance
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Pool
Brazil’s Federal Senate has passed a law establishing an official Day of Friendship with Israel, signaling growing pushback against President Lula da Silva’s increasingly hostile stance toward Jerusalem.
In a move led by opposition lawmakers, the Brazilian Senate voted last week to establish April 12 as “Brazil–Israel Friendship Day.”
The measure passed with support from right-leaning and centrist parties, which currently have a majority over Lula’s socialist Workers’ Party in the chamber.
After the veto window closed without intervention from Lula — who has been an outspoken critic of Israel since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — the law officially took effect on June 25.
This legislation marks a renewed attempt by opposition parties to push back against the government’s hostility toward Israel, following a similar proposal vetoed by former president Dilma Rousseff — also from Lula’s party — in 2013.
The new observance will take place on April 12, marking the anniversary of Brazil’s opening of its embassy in Israel in 1951.
“The new law goes beyond diplomacy, it recognizes and values the historical, cultural and social contribution of the Jewish community in Brazil, a vibrant, plural community deeply rooted in our national fabric,” Davi Alcolumbre, president of the Brazilian Senate and author of the legislation, said in a statement.
This latest move by opposition parties reflects increasing resistance to the government’s official stance and inflammatory rhetoric toward Israel.
In May, Lula accused Israel of “attacking women and children under the pretext of killing terrorists,” described its war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as “a genocide,” and claimed the Jewish state struck hospitals which did not contain Hamas members.
In February, Lula also received pushback for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and the war in Gaza to the Holocaust — a comparison described as an example of anti-Jewish hate under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The Brazilian Israelite Confederation (CONIB), the country’s leading Jewish organization, praised the latest legislation for recognizing the strong ties between Brazil and the Jewish community.
“The president of the Senate reaffirms the feelings of the Brazilian people, who have love, respect and gratitude for Israel,” the statement reads.
“The technology of the Jewish state has greatly benefited the Brazilian state, and Israel is also grateful to Brazil, because, in the figure of Oswaldo Aranha, it recognizes the importance of our country in the creation of the Jewish state,” it continued.
Aranha, a Brazilian diplomat, led the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 during the historic vote on the partition plan for British Mandatory Palestine, a key moment that contributed to the international recognition of the State of Israel.
Brazil is home to approximately 92,000 Jews, making it the 10th largest Jewish community in the world and the second largest in Latin America after Argentina.
According to a survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Brazil ranks as the 21st least antisemitic country out of 103, with a quarter of the population expressing “elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes,” making it the third lowest in the region.
However, since the Hamas-led atrocities on Oct. 7, Brazil has experienced a 961 percent spike in antisemitic incidents compared to the same period in 2022.
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
The post Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
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