Lula's 51.79% Win Freezes Brazil's Jerusalem Embassy Shift

Brazilians reelected Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Oct. 26, 2026, returning the left-wing Workers Party leader with 51.79% of valid votes and blocking senator Flavio Bolsonaro's plan to move Brazil's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party, took 48.21%.

Bolsonaro had campaigned on a closer partnership with Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Lula has criticized Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Bolsonaro said he did not accept the results, and it was not clear how he could challenge them.

At a June 28, 2026, meeting with Jewish leaders in Buenos Aires, Bolsonaro said that in 2027 Brazil would return an ambassador to Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem. He also praised the 120,000 Jews in Brazil, calling them 'men and women who rank among the brightest in Brazilian medicine, industry, science, culture and business.'

Lula's government endorsed South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in January 2024. A month later he compared Palestinian suffering in Gaza to Hitler's murder of the Jews, a comparison that Brazil's Jewish umbrella organization CONIB called a distortion offending Holocaust victims and their descendants.

Netanyahu posted on X the day after Bolsonaro led the first round on Oct. 4, 2026, writing: 'Congratulations @FlavioBolsonaro on yesterday's vote and good luck in the final. I look forward to restoring the extraordinary friendship between Israel and Brazil.'

The result runs against a regional pattern. Since 2023, Argentina's Javier Milei has made support for Israel central to his foreign policy; Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz Pereira restored ties his predecessor severed; Honduras's Nasry Asfura recognized Israel's ambassador; Chile's Jose Antonio Kast is rebuilding ties; and Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella restored relations, opened an embassy in Jerusalem and left the ICJ case.