Brazilian oil trade unions urge Lula to impose energy embargo on Israel
Two of the largest federations of trade unions for oil workers in Brazil have called on the government to impose an energy embargo on Israel.
The National Federation of Oil Workers and the Single Federation of Oil Workers sent a joint letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and key ministers in the Brazilian government on Wednesday, urging them to take more concrete action against Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
Referring to comments made by Lula in February, the federations said that Brazil needs to go beyond public rhetoric and implement an energy embargo against Israel in accordance with its international legal obligations to prevent the “ongoing Nakba” - meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic and referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created.
In February, President Lula, while he was attending the African Union Summit in Ethiopia, accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza and compared its war on Gaza with Nazi Germany’s extermination of Jews.
The letter highlighted that 2.7m barrels of crude oil were exported from Brazil to Israel in 2024 alone, representing a significant portion of Israel's military fuel supply, and Brazil had a global responsibility to avoid complicity in war crimes, as articulated by legal experts and international judicial bodies.
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The letter cited action taken by other countries, such as Colombia’s suspension of coal exports to Israel, and global grassroots campaigns such as #BlockTheBoat, where dockworkers around the world have refused to load Israeli ships and cargo and transport arms to Israel.
In the United States, Block the Boat was organised by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in San Francisco.
In addition to the immediate suspension of oil exports to Israel, the federations urge the Brazilian government to suspend projects with Israeli energy companies, and support United Nations-led sanctions and measures to hold Israel to account.
Signatories said this was an opportunity for Brazil to “honour its diplomatic legacy, affirm its position on the right side of history, and ensure that its economic policies reflect its ethical and legal commitments to human rights and international law".
The Single Federation of Oil Workers is a national trade union, while the National Federation of Oil Workers is a trade union federation comprised of independently operating oil workers' unions.
Diplomatic backlash to Lula’s comments
Lula has been a longtime supporter of Palestine.
His comment to reporters on 17 February in Ethiopia sparked a diplomatic backlash when he said that Israel’s actions in Gaza were not a war, "It's a genocide".
'What's happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn't happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews'
- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian president
"It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It's a war between a highly prepared army, and women and children," he said.
"What's happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn't happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula’s Nazi Germany comparison was “disgraceful and grave”, while Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Lula would be “a persona non grata in Israel” until he took back his comments.
Lula refused to take back his comments and recalled Brazil’s ambassador from Israel.
Reuters reported that his approval ratings fell from 54 percent to 51 percent after his comments.
Lula also backed South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel in January, which ruled that a “plausible genocide” was happening in Gaza.
An official statement highlighted Lula’s role in the decision: “The president expressed his support for South Africa’s initiative to bring Israel before the ICJ to determine that Israel immediately ceases all acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
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