Amorim condemns Hamas attack, but criticizes Israel for ‘abandoning the peace process’ – 10/08/2023 – Panel

The Hamas attack against Israel this Saturday (7), the worst recorded in 50 years, needs to be condemned and is not justified, but it cannot be seen as an isolated fact and reflects the decision of Israeli governments to leave the peace process aside in recent years, says former chancellor Celso Amorim.

Special advisor for international affairs to the Presidency of the Republic, Amorim reiterates several times that attacks on civilians must always be condemned, regretted and are not justified. “But it cannot be seen as an isolated fact,” he says. “It comes after years and years of discriminatory treatment, of violence, not only in the Gaza Strip itself, but also in the West Bank.”

He cites as an example Israel’s offensive in July in the Jenin refugee camp, in an action that left at least eight Palestinians dead and 50 injured in the country’s biggest incursion into the territory of the occupied West Bank in almost two decades.

“That doesn’t justify it, I’ll say it again, but what I see is that the result of this attitude, of the increase in Israeli settlements, is the difficulty of advancing the peace plan”, he states.

In the former chancellor’s assessment, the Israel’s lack of understanding that it was necessary to make concessions and recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people ended up creating the current situation.

“Because after an important conference, which was in Anápolis, there was a prospect of peace. It wouldn’t be easy, we all knew, but there was a prospect of peace”, he states. “Unfortunately, the governments that came later, in Israel, left the peace process aside, carried out several attacks on Gaza, increased settlements, and all of this ended up generating this situation.”

Amorim states that the current conflict ends up making the line defended by the government, of two states living peacefully side by side, increasingly distant. “What just happened is just a demonstration, serious, with consequences, of what happens when we lose hope for peace,” he says.

The former chancellor also argues that mere repression does not solve the problem. “I understand the families’ pain when there is an attack like this, but if we want to resolve it, there is no point in wanting to see this as an isolated incident.”

The special advisor to the Presidency also says he believes that the Brazilians who are there will be able to be removed by the government. “When I was minister, during the Lula government, we took 3,000 Brazilians out of Lebanon. Of course, each case is different, there will be specific difficulties, but I think the Brazilians will be taken care of.”

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