Has Palestine become an election issue in Latin America’s largest country?

Brazil is experiencing one of its most polarised electoral battles, as the race intensifies between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. While the economy, security and domestic crises dominate voters’ concerns, an issue that at first glance appears to lie thousands of kilometres away from Brasília has moved to the heart of the electoral contest: Palestine.

The latest Datafolha poll points to an extremely tight race, with Lula, the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, receiving 39 percent of voting intentions in the first round, compared with 35 percent  for Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party (PL) candidate. 

But the contest between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro is unfolding at a moment when Latin America’s political map is itself being redrawn. A broader shift to the right has gathered momentum across the region, from Javier Milei’s Argentina to José Antonio Kast’s Chile and the election of a right-wing government in Colombia, while Venezuela has been plunged into an extraordinary political transition following the capture and removal of Nicolás Maduro. 

Against this rapidly changing regional backdrop, Brazil’s election is about far more than who will occupy the presidency. It is also about what kind of Brazil will emerge from the ballot box, and where Latin America’s largest country will position itself within a region undergoing a profound geopolitical realignment.

In that struggle, Palestine, and relations with Israel in particular, has emerged as one of the clearest dividing lines between the two competing political projects.

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Flávio Bolsonaro has made his position clear. If elected, he has pledged to strengthen Brazil’s alliance with Israel and move the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, declaring that Brazil would move towards “alignment with Israel” from 2027. Lula, by contrast, has maintained a diplomatic approach based on recognition of the Palestinian state and support for the two-state solution, while strongly criticising Israeli military operations in Gaza. Brazil recognised the State of Palestine in 2010 and continues officially to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

🇧🇷 BOLSONARO AMPLÍA LA VENTAJA SOBRE LULA.

Polymarket acaba de moverse nuevamente:

Flávio Bolsonaro: 51,3%
Lula: 47%
La diferencia ya es de 4,3 puntos.

Lo venimos siguiendo hace semanas, pero el cambio de tendencia es cada vez más difícil de ignorar.

⏳⏳ pic.twitter.com/hlBrxLQSNa

— Lorenzo Couget (@LorenzoBolsa) September 14, 2026

Palestine is no longer just another foreign policy issue in Brazil’s election. It has become part of a much bigger debate about the kind of country Brazil wants to be on the world stage. On one side is a long-standing diplomatic tradition based on independence, multilateralism and respect for international law. On the other is a right-wing vision that would bring Brazil closer to the United States and Israel and reshape some of the principles that have guided its foreign policy for decades.

As Latin America’s largest country by both size and population, Brazil’s political choices carry weight far beyond its borders. The next election will decide more than who occupies the presidency. It could also shape how one of the Global South’s most influential countries approaches Palestine, Israel and the wider debate over international law and global alliances.

The divide is stark. Lula is expected to maintain Brazil’s support for Palestinian statehood and multilateral diplomacy, while Flávio Bolsonaro victory could bring Brasília much closer to Israel and Washington.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Independence Day rally in São Paulo came with a giant inflatable Trump holding Lula as a prisoner.

The rally backed Flávio Bolsonaro, who is running against Lula in October.

USP researchers estimated around 28,500 people on Avenida Paulista.

And a Quaest poll… pic.twitter.com/Rcv8hdKb7s

— Alma Gentil (@Chinoy200096633) September 8, 2026

Speaking to MEMO, former Brazilian Foreign Minister Francisco Rezek said the Palestinian question had become “the most dramatic issue” in the confrontation between the right and the left in Brazil. He argued that, at its core, the dispute concerns the future of Brazil’s own foreign policy tradition.

According to Rezek, Brazil’s left and much of its political centre continue to embody a diplomatic tradition based on “independence, non-alignment and non-subservience” as well as “absolute respect for international law”. He said these principles, together with an emphasis on ethics and humanity, have shaped Brazilian foreign policy “since the days of the Empire”.

Rezek argued that former President Jair Bolsonaro failed to fully break with this tradition during his four years in office. He described the period in which Ernesto Araújo headed the Foreign Ministry as an “embarrassing interlude”, saying Bolsonaro ultimately replaced him with Carlos França, whom Rezek described as “a diplomat fully imbued with the spirit of the House of Rio Branco and faithful to our vocation and our history”.

Rezek’s warning comes as Washington seeks to reassert its influence across Latin America, with Javier Milei emerging as one of Donald Trump’s closest regional allies.

In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro is campaigning on a foreign policy that would bring Brasília closer to both the United States and Israel, sharpening the contrast with Lula’s emphasis on the Global South and multilateralism.

For Rezek, this broader geopolitical shift is precisely what makes Palestine so central to Brazil’s election debate. The issue has become a test of whether the country will preserve its traditional diplomatic autonomy or move towards a more openly pro-US and pro-Israel alignment.

Rezek was sharply critical of the foreign policy orientation of Brazil’s radical right, which he said was increasingly aligned with figures such as US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei.

READ: Brazilian president slams war on Iran, criticises UN Security Council

“The current candidate of the radical right for the presidency of the Republic has announced, with regard to foreign policy, his alignment with what is most repugnant on the international scene today,” Rezek said. He accused Trump, Milei and others of being complicit, “whether through direct action or bovine inertia”, in what he described as the crimes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rezek also criticised the candidate’s reported intention to appoint the leader of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, CONIB, as health minister, describing the move as “a respectful tribute to the Zionist lobby rather than to the medical sciences”.

@LulaOficial sale a las #calles y calienta la #BatallaElectoral en #Brasil

Miles de #simpatizantes respaldaron la #reelección del #mandatario mientras su #rival enfrenta #señalamientos por una #investigación de #corrupción y #LavadoDeDinero.https://t.co/GQNrXrfNRT pic.twitter.com/vR3m8X6mN2

— The Mexico Post (@MexicoPost) September 14, 2026

For Rezek, Gaza is where Brazil’s wider political divide becomes especially clear. He described what is happening in Gaza as “the most infamous genocide recorded in the history of the human race”, and accused the West of watching with “cowardly eyes” as the violence spread further across the region, including into Lebanon.

His comments help explain why Palestine has become more than a foreign policy issue in Brazil’s election. It is now part of a wider debate over the country’s place in the world — whether Brazil should continue to stress international law, diplomatic independence and multilateralism, or move closer to the more openly pro-Israel and pro-US positions associated with the radical right.

Even so, Rezek said he believes Brazil’s diplomatic institutions could help prevent a dramatic break with that tradition. Despite the country’s deep political divisions, he argued that Itamaraty (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)  could still play a key role in preserving Brazil’s long-standing foreign policy principles, even under a future right-wing government.

“Even in the undesirable event of a right-wing victory both in the leadership of the government and in the composition of Congress, our foreign policy will preserve its dignity and restraint,” he said.

Rezek attributed that resilience to Itamaraty, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, praising what he called its “devotion to international law, its intelligence, its professionalism and its dignity”.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.