2024-07-09 19:03:14
After about 13 years of signing, the Brazilian government announced the entry into force of the Mercosur Free Trade Agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “The agreement represents a tangible contribution to the establishment of an economically viable Palestinian state that can live in peace and harmony with its neighbors.”
The Palestinian ambassador to Brasilia, Ibrahim Al-Zaben, described Brazil’s decision as “courageous, supportive and timely.”
“It is an effective way to support peace in Palestine,” he told Reuters, adding that he “hopes that Palestinian trade with Mercosur, which currently stands at only $32 million annually, will grow.”
The Mercosur group includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, while Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname are associated countries. The bloc, which was founded in 1991, represents about 62 percent of the population of South America and 67 percent of the continent’s gross domestic product, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Brazilian government had previously said that the killing of more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza shows that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza has “no moral or legal limits,” renewing its call for “an immediate ceasefire.”
Brazil recalled its ambassador to Israel in late May, without intending to appoint a replacement for the time being, a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “accused Israel on February 18 of committing ‘genocide’ during the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.”
“What is happening in Gaza is not a war, it is genocide,” Lula said. “It is not a war of soldiers against soldiers, it is a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” he added. “What is happening in Gaza with the Palestinian people has never happened at any other point in history. In fact, it happened before when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
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2024-07-09 19:03:14