Brazil permanently withdraws its ambassador from Israel

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s decision to remove Ambassador Frederico Meyer comes days after an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah killed 45 Palestinian civilians that were living in a refugee encampment.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the tragic error, attributing it to a miscalculated airstrike intended for Hamas militants.

Although the withdrawal of Ambassador Meyer does not signify a full-scale diplomatic rupture between Brazil and Israel, the action is perceived as one of Brazil’s most pronounced rebukes of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

Rights or wrongs, nothing is ‘permanent’.