Rio’s evangelical new mayor to celebrate victory in Israel
Marcelo Crivella to meet with Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat next week, Brazilian media reports
JTA
Comment by Julio Severo: Mr. Crivella, who is a former bishop of the Universal Church of the
Kingdom of God (UCKG), was never able to show a solid stance against anti-“homophobia”
bills and he was very close to the former socialist President Dilma Rousseff.
And his denomination is shamefully known for being
pro-abortion and, as far as prophecies and revelations are concerned,
cessationist. I hope Crivella may have changed and be now a “black
sheep” in the UCKG. But, despite of weaknesses, he has a good quality: He is
pro-Israel. The known conservative website Breitbart reported about Crivella’s intent
to celebrate his victory in Israel. Breitbart mentioned a report from the
Israeli newspaper Times of Israel, fully reproduced below:
Marcelo
Crivella, who was elected Sunday, will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat next week, several Brazilian media outlets reported, citing the
mayor-elect himself as the source. However, the information has not been
confirmed by Israeli officials.
“Marcelo
Crivella, who has been to Israel nearly 35 times, is a great friend of the
Jewish community and the State of Israel,” Israel’s Rio-based honorary consul
Osias Wurman, a former president of Rio’s Jewish federation, told JTA. “I hope
he will strengthen a lot of the cooperation between Rio and the State of
Israel, in particular in the areas of security, culture and technology.”
Brazil’s
most influential weekly magazine reported Monday that the
Jewish vote from one of Rio’s wealthiest neighborhoods was key in electing
Crivella. The massive support could have been a reaction to Crivella’s
opponent’s party members, who recently referred to the late Israeli
President Shimon Peres as an “ideologue of terrorism” and, a year ago, burned
the Israeli flag in public.
Crivella
easily beat his far-leftist opponent Marcelo Freixo with 59 percent of the vote
in the municipal runoff election in Brazil’s second largest city.
In
January, when Brazil rejected Israel’s choice of a former settler leader as
ambassador to Brasilia, Crivella said it conveyed a
pro-boycott message. The position has since remained vacant.
“Rejecting
the ambassador can convey a message that Brazil supports BDS,” Crivella wrote
in an op-ed published in the influential Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo,
referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
“Leaving Israel without an ambassador won’t help anyone.”
Crivella
called Dani Dayan “a prepared diplomat selected legitimately by a friendly
country. The fact that he defends settlements in the West Bank is a weak motive
for such discourtesy and so much political inability.”
In
his article, Crivella noted the deep ties between Brazil and Israel, recalling
that Brazilian diplomat Oswaldo Aranha presided over the United Nations session
that created the State of Israel in 1948.
In
November, the senator joined
some 1,500 demonstrators at a pro-Israel rally in Rio de Janeiro. Days before,
during a major TV show, he had called for “all friends of Israel” to attend the
rally.
Crivella
is a nephew of Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of
God some 40 years ago. He also has played a pivotal role in the church
gathering some 5.2 million followers at 13,000 temples across Brazil and
worldwide. The church owns the second-largest TV station in Brazil, as well as
a broad conglomerate of newspapers and radio stations.
By
assuming the chair of mayor of Rio on Jan. 1, Crivella will interrupt his
second eight-year term in the Senate.
Brazil,
which has the world’s largest Catholic population — some 65% of its population
of 204 million — is home to some 120,000 Jews.
Source: Times
of Israel, via Last
Days Watchman
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