‘There is a revival of neo-Nazi groups in Brazil’, says director of Jewish foundation – 02/17/2023 – Politics

The arrest of a 17-year-old youth, detained for throwing Molotov cocktail bombs at two schools while wearing an armband with a swastika, has once again raised alarms about the growth of anti-Semitism in Brazil.

For Ariel Gelblung, director for Latin America at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the incident is a reflection of the strengthening of neo-Nazi ideology in the country during the government of Jair Bolsonaro.

“There is a revival of neo-Nazi groups in Brazil. We saw something similar happen in the United States during Donald Trump’s government, when members of the extreme right thought they had the right to express and say anything,” said the lawyer to BBC News Brasil.

“The same happened in Brazil during the Bolsonaro government.”

According to the Argentine, the issue needs to be discussed and brought to the fore in order to “disarm the spread” of violent anti-Semitism.

“Although we are calm with the way the authorities acted to detain the aggressor and because there were no victims or significant damage, we are concerned about the episode itself”, says the representative of the Jewish organization that claims to aim to promote human rights and research the Holocaust.

The attack took place in the building in Monte Mor, in the interior of São Paulo, which houses the Professor Antonio Sproesser State School and the Vista Alegre Municipal School, where the attacker had studied up to the 5th grade of elementary school. He is a minor and his identity has not been released.

Two devices exploded after hitting the building’s entrance railing, but no one was injured.

According to the Municipal Guard, in addition to the armband, a notebook and books with Nazi references and a replica of a rifle were found in a car used by the aggressor and in his house.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen something like this recently in Brazil. It’s about a teenager and we honestly don’t know if the motivation was personal or ideological. But that’s a sign that we have to be alert”, stated Ariel Gelblung.

dangerous alliances

For the Argentine, there is not necessarily a direct link between Jair Bolsonaro and anti-Semitism, but the visions and alliances made by the former president during his term gave rise to the growth of a dangerous extreme right.

“Bolsonaro received and approached a representative of the AfD from Germany”, says the lawyer, referring to the reception given to German deputy Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the ultra-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany).

Von Storch is the granddaughter of Johann Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk, who served as finance minister under Adolf Hitler for over 12 years. Many members of the party are also regularly accused of harboring Nazi sympathies and downplaying the crimes committed by the Third Reich.

“Ideologically, these members of the extreme right felt as if they had a real right to express their beliefs,” says Gelblung.

Questioned about the proximity of the former president and many of his followers to Israel — it is not uncommon for Bolsonarists to display the country’s flags in public demonstrations — the expert stated that the policy does not always follow an exact logic.

“It seems to me that Bolsonaro is serious when he expresses his admiration for Israel, because he is very supportive of the evangelical church and they love Israel,” he says.

“But not everyone thinks the same. Many of his supporters are not evangelicals — they support him as a politician, not a believer. Politics is not like math.”

Bolsonaro has always denied having any relationship with right-wing extremists or neo-Nazis.

The director of the Jewish organization for Latin America also compares this Brazilian context with the American one. “No one has done so much for Israel [na Presidência americana] like Donald Trump. But the far right got too comfortable with his leadership,” he says.

BBC News Brasil tried to contact Bolsonaro and his advisors so that they could give a position on the allegations. No responses were sent until the publication of this material.

‘New government brings other problems’

Despite the concern, Ariel Gelblung says that Brazil has made some progress in recent years, with the entry into the IHRA (International Alliance for Holocaust Remembrance) as an observer member and important decisions of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) against Holocaust denial speeches.

But the lawyer does not see the change in government as necessarily good news for the fight against neo-Nazi groups. According to him, the proximity of current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Iran could be problematic for advancing the fight against anti-Semitism.

Gelblung saw the Presidency’s decision to initially allow the docking of two Iranian military vessels in the port of Rio de Janeiro in January as a sign of this rapprochement.

The authorization was later vetoed, after the Iranian government’s request was seen as an attempt by Tehran to use Brazil to provoke the US – the ships would arrive on the coast in the same week that the Brazilian president would be in Washington for a visit to the House White.

“With the change of government we can see another kind of problem with anti-Semitism arise”, says the representative of the Center Simon Wiesenthal.

“When Iran extended its influence in Latin America in the past, we had three terrorist attacks in the country. Two in Buenos Aires and one in Panama.”

Buenos Aires was the target of two attacks, in 1992 and 1994. The first one, against the Israeli embassy, ​​left 29 dead. The second attack targeted the building of the AMIA (Association Mutual Israelita Argentina) and left 85 dead.

The day after the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires, an airplane explosion in Panama killed all 21 people on board. Among the passengers, 12 were Jewish. The incident was officially classified as a terrorist act by Israel and the US.

The BBC sought the Social Communication Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic about a position in relation to the statements, but did not receive a response.

growth of denouncements

Between June 2020 and July 2022, Brazil registered one complaint of anti-Semitism per week, according to a survey carried out by the report “O Anti-Semitism during the Bolsonaro government”.

The document, signed by four Brazilian activists and academics with a long history in the study and monitoring of anti-Semitism in the country, mentions 104 “anti-Semitic events” in Brazil over more than 700 days.

The researchers pointed to an exacerbation of anti-Semitism in parallel with Nazi-fascist manifestations in Brazil, including by members of government posts.

Several episodes are listed in the report as indicative of this behavior by government officials. One of the cases pointed out happened in 2020, when Jair Bolsonaro and advisors drank a glass of milk during a live.

“Drinking milk in public is a symbol of the neo-Nazis. They defend a ‘theory’ (obviously part of pseudoscience), which states that only individuals of the Aryan race would be able to tolerate lactose as adults. Therefore, in demonstrations, they drink gallons of milk and ‘take pride’ in it,” the report reads.

In another more recent episode, supporters of Bolsonaro performed a Nazi salute during the playing of the national anthem at a demonstration in favor of military intervention in Santa Catarina. The case is investigated by the Public Ministry.

– This text was published in