The São Paulo City Council has created a parliamentary front in support of cooperation with Israel.
The Brazil-Israel Parliamentary Front for Social, Economic, Financial, Entrepreneurship, and International Relations Development was voted in with an absolute majority last week.
This project officially creates an internal parliamentary caucus inside the city council focused on Brazil–Israel relations. It does not mean that São Paulo has signed a binding agreement with Israel. However, as a city council political caucus, it can host meetings, invite diplomats and businesses, promote partnerships, and propose legislation.
Councilwoman Cris Monteiro, who proposed the front, called it a "victory of common sense over ideological hatred."
"Amid so much ideological noise, what truly matters prevailed: the interest of São Paulo in forming strategic alliances and developing itself," she wrote after the legislation was approved on Wednesday.
"With this Front, we strengthen technological exchange between São Paulo and Israel, the 'Startup Nation.' Israel transformed scarcity into innovation, technology into prosperity, and knowledge into economic growth. That is the model we want to bring closer to São Paulo."
Monteiro said the caucus will not be symbolic but will be about "actual results." She added that São Paulo cannot afford to reject those who are a reference in technology, security, entrepreneurship, and management.
Monteiro: São Paulo responded to anti-Zionism
She also spoke up in support of Israel in a time of mass global opposition: "In times of boycotts and persecution against the world’s only Jewish state, our city gave an important response to hatred."
The São Paulo initiative follows a similar move in Brazil's National Congress in 2019. The 2019 resolution created the "Grupo Parlamentar Brasil-Israel" at the federal level and concerned relations between Brazil’s national legislature and Israel.
Monteiro herself has been outspoken in her support of Israel and the Jewish people.
Following a visit to Israel in August 2024, she told the Shalom Brasil channel about her "emotional" trip to the Kibbutzim and the Nova Festival site.
She spoke of being "deeply moved" in her meetings with hostage families, and of being impressed by her visit to the organization Beit Loren, which supports soldiers wounded in wars.
"I left Israel very eager to return. I will certainly return. I will return at another moment, when peace has been established, and the people of Israel will be living in harmony," she said.
In March 2024, São Paulo was the second Brazilian city to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, following Rio de Janeiro in November 2023.