Bolsonaro to Move Brazil's Embassy to Jerusalem, Netanyahu Says

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s incoming President Jair Bolsonaro has said he’ll follow the lead of the U.S. and move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

The Israeli leader, in Brazil for Bolsonaro’s inauguration on Tuesday, spoke in Rio de Janiero. He said Bolsonaro assured him the embassy move is “not a question of if, it’s just a question of when.” Bolsonaro accepted his invitation to visit Israel in the next few months, he added.

President Donald Trump in May officially moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, after announcing in December 2017 that he would recognize Jerusalem as the nation’s capital. The move incensed Palestinians, who demand the eastern part of the city as their own future capital.

Bolsonaro’s right-leaning administration is likely to pursue closer ties to Netanyahu’s, with which it’s more ideologically compatible than the previous Brazilian government. The Brazil-Israeli relationship will be “fantastic,” Netanyahu said.

Several Israeli delegations will travel to Brazil in the coming months to map out the full extent of bilateral cooperation in areas such as security, defense and agriculture, Netanyahu added. “This is a partnership that is meant to happen, and we’re going to make it happen very fast.”

To contact the reporters on this story: David Biller in Rio de Janeiro at dbiller1@bloomberg.net;Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Virginia Van Natta

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