Attempted murder pits Brazil’s Jews vs. Arabs
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Brazil’s frontrunner presidential candidate, who is openly pro-Israel, chose a Jewish hospital in which to recover after he was stabbed during a street rally.
Far-right lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach on Thursday while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, in southeast Brazil. Referred to by many as “Brazil’s Trump,” the conservative Christian candidate, 63, was stabbed by an attacker who told the police he was “on a mission from God.” Captured on cellphone videos, the attack with a 14-cm knife could hardly have been more dramatic.
Bolsonaro, who was seriously injured, was transferred to Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo.
The fact that Bolsonaro, who recently announced that he will move Brazil’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, refused treatment at an Arab hospital commonly chosen by the country’s most senior pols fueled rivalry that made headlines and led to conspiracy theories in social media.
“This time the Syrian-Lebanese — known as ‘the hospital of the powerful’ — lost the battle to its rival, the Albert Einstein,” Brazil’s most influential newspaper reported.
The most radical among Bolsonaro’s nearly 10 million followers on social media suggested his life would be at risk if moved from the city of Juiz de Fora to receive medical treatment “by the hands of Arab and Muslim doctors,” adding that, at the Jewish institution, Israel’s Mossad would be able to protect him.
“Some news just is not true. We vigorously repudiate those who, in a frivolous way, want to import international conflicts into Brazilian society,” Rio Jewish federation’s newly-elected president, Ary Bergher, told JTA.
“Brazilian Arabs and Jews use both Albert Einstein and Syrian-Lebanese hospitals with total confidence and cordiality. Brazil is proud of cutting-edge medicine” at both hospitals, he said. “Born in Rio, the candidate chose to be treated in São Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital. There is no kind of antagonism or animosity between the Brazilian Jewish community and our cousins of the Brazilian Arab community,” the Jewish federation’s president also said.
While some of Bolsonaro’s haters initially suggested that the stabbing was staged, his allies revealed that Folha de S. Paulo the attacker had been affiliated with PSOL, Brazil’s far-left political party with an openly anti-Israel platform, including a member who burned the Israeli flag in public several years ago.
“A chartered flight sent from the Syrian-Lebanese landed in Juiz de Fora. The Bolsonaros thanked (the hospital) for the offer, but they had other plans. The lawmaker’s close relations with part of the Jewish community, which runs the Einstein, had a heavier weight,” Folha de S. Paulo reported. “Advised by businessman Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro’s supporter and a known figure in the Jewish community, the family chose the Einstein.”
Doctors said the candidate, who is a Rio de Janeiro state representative in Congress, will spend at least a week in hospital and could take weeks to recover from life-threatening injuries. The election’s first round is scheduled for October 7.
In a video recorded from his hospital bed and released on Friday, Bolsonaro thanked medical staff and described the attack. “All of us have a mission here on Earth. I prepared myself for a moment like this, because you run risks,” he said.
He lamented missing the September 7 Independence Day parade in Rio and quoted his campaign slogan: “Brazil above everything and God above everyone.”
In another video recorded prior to the attack, Bolsonaro wished shanah tovah to the Jewish community.
Last month, he said he will close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia and that his first international trip, if elected, will be to the Jewish state.
“Is Palestine a country? Palestine is not a country, so there should be no embassy here. You do not negotiate with terrorists,” he said.
Bolsonaro said he will seek to broaden the dialogue with Israel, the United States and Europe.
The candidate has participated in a handful of television interviews in recent weeks, saying he has never been accused of corruption during his nearly 30-year political career and also repeated he intends to move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
Like evangelical and deeply conservative politicians in the United States, Bolsonaro is divisive among Jewish voters, who tend to be socially liberal but want their representatives to be strongly pro-Israel.
“My heart is green, yellow, blue and white,” Bolsonaro told to an audience of 400 at the Hebraica club in Rio in 2017 in a reference to the Israeli and Brazilian flags. He won big applause as he hailed the Jewish state for its power and social welfare system, saying it should inspire Latin America’s largest nation.
Bolsonaro’s passionate supporters usually refer to him by the nickname “Mito,” from the word myth or legend. Bolsonaro was the top vote-getter among 46 congress members elected from the area in 2014 and won his sixth consecutive term in 24 years. His three sons, also politicians, have been constantly photographed wearing T-shirts with messages in Hebrew.