The organization calls on the president to make a personal commitment to fight growing anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’ war against Israel
StandWithUs Brasil, an NGO whose purpose is to teach people of all ages about Israel and combat extremism and antisemitism, published an open letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the country’s three largest newspapers on Wednesday. The letter, written by Jews and non-Jews, expresses concern about the consequences of the Hamas war against Israel in Brazil, highlights the growing anti-Semitism here and around the world and asks for a firm stance from President Lula to treat this scenario with due seriousness.
Read the full letter below:
Open letter from StandWithUs Brazil to President Lula
To the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
We, Brazilian Jews, together with many non-Jews who share our pain, would like to send this open letter to the President of the Republic and to society to express our concern about the consequences here of the Hamas war against Israel.
The massacre on October 7th, just over two months ago, was the biggest killing of Jews for being Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 people were murdered in cold blood in a macabre terrorist attack that included rapes, burned or mutilated bodies, entire families killed in their own homes and more than 200 children, elderly people, women and men kidnapped. Almost all of us – a community made up of just over a hundred thousand Brazilians who love their country – know someone there who has been killed, injured, lost a family member or is awaiting the release of a hostage.
Israel has the right to defend itself against this barbarity, just as Brazil would have if the massacre had taken place here. But it was there in a distant land that has always been the target of prejudice and misinformation. Since the beginning of this war, we have seen an alarming rise in anti-Semitism, on the streets and on the web. Speeches that were previously unthinkable now find free vent. We’ve even seen marches with Hamas flags in Brazil, which is witnessing a horrendous normalization of terrorism and the trivialization of calls to hurt and kill Jews. Understand that all this threatens the security of our families – and of society as a whole.
It’s not a special case: it’s happening all over the world, and we don’t want to get to the situation in other countries where Jews have to take their mezuzahs off their doors, walk down the street without a kippah and hide the Star of David around their necks. We don’t want to have to ask our children, here in Brazil, to change their clothes so as not to be seen in the street wearing the uniform of a Jewish school – and there are families who are already going through this. It is urgent that the authorities and politicians start to act decisively and do some social pedagogy. We will not accept living in permanent fear of being victims of hatred and violence.
President Lula, in the last campaign, you preached an end to hate speech, fake news and attacks on minorities, and promised to work for the unity of Brazilians. This is more than necessary. We believe in your words and we expect you to honor your commitment. That’s why there are words that hurt and silences that are deafening.
The false equivalences hurt: a people that defends itself cannot be equated with those who want to massacre it, and a democratic state that protects its people (the only democracy in the Middle East) cannot be equated with a terrorist group that uses innocent civilians as shields – a religious fundamentalist group that established a military dictatorship in Gaza more than 15 years ago and holds its population hostage, violating human rights, oppressing women and persecuting the LGBT population. The statements that, out of ignorance, reproduce fake news and conspiracy theories about Israel, which feed prejudice against Jews and Zionism – the proper name of the national movement for self-determination of the Jewish people – hurt. The absence of voices repudiating anti-Semitism in those political and social sectors where it spreads dangerously is deafening.
You recently received the sister and daughter of Brazilian Michel Nisenbaum, who is still being held hostage by Hamas. This was an important step, but the gravity of the situation demands much more. The words, decisions and public stances of the country’s highest authority can bring us security or insecurity – and, if they are right, they can educate, helping to build a peaceful society that is aware of the evils of anti-Semitism.
Our pain, however, does not lead us to distance ourselves: we want to talk, to talk, to be heard. We know that you are an open person, who knows how to listen, and we hope that you understand how important it would be, because of your influence, for you to speak out loud and clear that Hamas is a terrorist group – because of the facts that the whole world has seen, despite the UN’s blindness – and to demand in international forums the unconditional release of all the hostages. Listen to the testimony of compatriots who returned from Israel after the massacre and have still not been received. Pay tribute to the murdered Brazilians – Karla Stelzer, Bruna Valeanu and Ranani Glaza- as well as Celeste Fishbein, the daughter and granddaughter of Brazilian women.
And, above all, that he personally commits himself, as a representative of the Brazilian people, to the fight against the prejudice that also affects us here at home, officially adopting – as Fernández in Argentina, Biden in the USA, Macron in France, Sánchez in Spain and Merkel in Germany have already done – the definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and leading, here in Brazil, a social change in the understanding of a problem that is so old and unfortunately so current.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***