MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil recognized the state of Palestine based on borders before 1967

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Brazil recognized on Friday the state of Palestine based on borders before Israel seized control of the West Bank in 1967. The foreign ministry said the recognition was in response to a request made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to President Lula da Silva earlier this year.

The decision is in line with Brazil’s historic support for United Nations resolutions demanding the end of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and doesn’t detract from the country’s support for peace negotiations between the two sides, the ministry said in a statement.

”Considering that the demand presented by his Excellency (Abbas) is just and consistent with the principles upheld by Brazil with regard to the Palestinian issue, Brazil, through this letter, recognizes a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders,“ it said.

The letter refers to the ”legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people for a secure, united, democratic and economically viable state coexisting peacefully with Israel.“

The international community backs Palestinian demands for a state in most of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, all territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

The letter says that over one hundred countries have recognized the Palestinian State, among them all of the Arab countries and most of the African, Asian and Eastern European ones. Countries that maintain fluid relations with Israel – such as Russia, China, South Africa and India, among others – have recognized the Palestinian State. All of Brazil’s partners both in IBSA and BRIC have recognized Palestine.

However the United States and most Western governments have held back from recognizing a Palestinian state, saying it should be brought about through a negotiated peace agreement with Israel.

Abbas visited Brazil in 2005 and 2009, and Lula made the first ever trip by a Brazilian head of state to Israel and the Palestinian territories in March of this year.

In a parallel statement, the government assured relations with Israel ”have never been more robust”.

“The ties between both countries have been strengthened throughout the years, simultaneously and without harm to the initiatives to establish closer ties with the Arab and Muslim world”, says the statement

Trade and investment flows with Israel have repeatedly reached historical records. The Free Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR and Israel, in force since April, was the first done between the regional bloc and an extra-regional country.

In March, President Lula made the first visit of a Brazilian Head of State to the State of Israel, in retribution to the visit made by Israeli President Shimon Peres to Brazil in 2009, the first of a Head of State from that country in over forty years