Brazilian Homosexualist Politician Jean Wyllys Is Criticized for Israel Trip
By Julio Severo
A popular left-wing Brazilian congressman known for his
leadership in homosexual political issues is facing a major backlash from the
Brazilian and international Left because of his recent trip to Israel. The
legislator, Jean Wyllys, has angered the Left after participating in a
conference at an Israeli university.
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| Jean Wyllys at Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
According to The Intercept, on January 5, Wyllys
shocked and infuriated many socialists. He posted a smiling
photo of himself to his 871,626 Facebook followers, posing in front of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The attached comment read: “I am very happy and
thrilled for the opportunity to visit, for the first time, this city full of
history… Tomorrow I will give a lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem… about
anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and other forms of hate and prejudice and the
relation to contemporary politics.” The photo garnered more than 24,000 likes
and 1,700 comments.
The post immediately unleashed a flurry of comments,
some in support but many voicing vehement opposition. Numerous critics
specifically expressed shock and outrage that a standard-bearer of Brazil’s
progressive movement would so completely break with his party’s official position
in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against
Israel.
On Facebook, Wyllys declared that he opposes BDS. “I am
against boycotts against any people. I think it is mistaken to confuse the
government, the state and the population. Boycott destroys bridges and favors
the extremists on both sides,” he wrote, citing the failed U.S. blockade of
Cuba as an example.
His comments are befuddling socialists. According to
The Intercept, “Brazil has no substantial pro-Israel lobby and support for
Palestinian rights is a mainstream position.”
The intercept made a mistake, because the evangelical
population in Brazil, formed by more than 46 million Pentecostals and
charismatics (according to The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and
Charismatic Movements), is largely supportive of Israel. But these loyal
supporters have been befuddled that Israel has officially invited a prominent
Brazilian homosexual activist. Why not invite Pentecostal minister Silas
Malafaia or other prominent Brazilian evangelical leaders?
Socialists around the world hate Israel. Why does Israel
love them?
Conservative evangelicals love Israel. Why does Israel
hate their conservative stances against abortion and homosexuality?
The socialist hatred for Israel makes no ideological
sense, because Israel is the only nation in the Middle East having legal
abortion, gender ideology, homosexual parades, feminism and many other Western
evils. Above all, modern Israel was founded by Marxist Jews. The only
explanation for this hatred is spiritual: God gave the Jews the land of Israel
and everybody know it, because it is in the Bible, the book most read in the
world and most hated by the Left.
In addition, there is no logical reason for
evangelicals to be so supportive of Israel, which fervently defends the same
leftist insanities Jean Wyllys does. But their reason is spiritual. They
support Israel even when Israel supports socialists like Wyllys who are
stridently opposed to evangelicals and their values. They support Israel
because they know that God has a plan for Israel, regardless the fact Israel
supports ideologies opposed to evangelicals. It is an insane complexity where
Israel, even under a right-wing government, prefers to invite a Wyllys than a
Silas Malafaia, who is a prominent evangelical minister in Brazil.
Even so, the Brazilian Left hated Wyllys’ visit to
Israel.
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a Brazilian diplomat who served
on the Brazil’s Truth
Commission (which treated communists as heroes and victims, but their opponents
as criminals during the era of Brazil’s military rule) and was a U.N.’s
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, harshly criticized the congressman.
“Lamentable and deplorable, Congressman Jean Wyllys’ comments about his visit
to Israel reveal a crass ignorance of and total misinformation about Israel’s
current human rights policies,” he said. That sentiment is reflective of the left-wing
backlash triggered by his trip and subsequent remarks.
Wyllys’ controversial visit to Israel and his defense
of Israel come at a particularly tense moment in bilateral relations. Brazil’s leftist
Worker’s Party (PT) government, led by embattled President Dilma Rousseff, has refused
to accept the appointment of Dani Dayan as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil on the
grounds that he is a proponent of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank — which
biblically belongs to Israel, but international socialists say that Israel has
occupied illegally their own land. Under both Rousseff and her predecessor,
PT’s Lula da Silva, their party has been vocally supportive of the Palestinian
cause.
Wyllys has built intense popularity among Brazilian
socialists with uncompromising defenses of liberal issues: introducing bills promoting
marijuana legalization, sexual orientation statutes, full legalization of sex
work (prostitution), and rolling back the institutional vestiges of Brazil’s
former military rule — all anathema to the growing evangelical Right. He is the
only openly gay politician on the national stage of overwhelmingly Catholic Brazil.
What caused more outrage among socialists was that
Wyllys appeared at a university that, for them, is a symbol of Israeli “occupation.”
Much of Hebrew University of Jerusalem is built in East Jerusalem. For
socialists, East Jerusalem is a Palestinian land that was illegally
expropriated by Israel. A letter
signed by 351 international academics has condemned this university.
The conference attended by Wyllys was titled “Brazil
and Israel: Social and Cultural Challenges.” It took place January 5 and
6 and was sponsored by Hebrew University, Brown University, the Brazilian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Israeli Confederation of Brazil, among
other institutions.
In an interaction that appears to have since been
deleted, when one Facebook follower asked, “Jean, when will you visit the Gaza
Strip?” Wyllys’ account (signed by his communications team) responded, “Maybe
you don’t know that the Gaza Strip is currently under the control of the
terrorist organization Hamas. It is not, therefore, a safe space for an open
homosexual… but maybe you can go. Good luck!” In a later comment, he said he
“would also like to go to other Middle Eastern countries, but I cannot, because
in many of them I could be hanged or imprisoned for being gay.”
Socialists hate Israel because of the biblical view
that the land of Israel was given to the Jews by God, but they love all the
leftist pro-abortion and pro-homosexualism laws in Israel.
Evangelicals love Israel because of the biblical view
that the land of Israel was given to the Jews by God, but they hate all the
leftist pro-abortion and pro-homosexualism laws in Israel.
Socialists love Israeli socialism. But they hate the
God factor in Israel and its land. For socialists, this factor annuls all
socialist ideologies espoused by the Israeli society. I hope that someday the
Jews may see the importance of this factor and how conservative evangelicals,
not socialists, are the real friends of Israel.
Jean Wyllys can be criticized for many stances,
including his defense of drugs, prostitution and homosexual depravity. But he
cannot be criticized for supporting Israel, which is the only nation in the Middle
East that does not murder homosexuals.
If socialists think otherwise, they should send all
Brazilian and U.S. homosexuals to try to live among Palestinians…
With
information from The Intercept.
Portuguese
version of this article: Jean Wyllys é criticado por viagem a
Israel
Source: Last Days Watchman
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