the Brazilian President paid homage to the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank.

 

March 18, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Brazil’s internationally admired President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s peace mission visit to Palestine was ill received by Israeli officials’ generally aggressive attitudes toward the world outside .

 

On Tuesday the Brazilian President paid homage to the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank. At the tomb of Yasser Arafat, the Brazilian President criticized heavy-handed policies of the Israelis against the Palestinians and blasted erection of a steel wall separating Gaza from Egypt that’s currently under construction. Large groups of Palestinians attended the ceremony of placing a wreath on Arafat’s mausoleum.

 

The visit follows Lula’s refusal to go see the grave of Theodor Herzl one of the founders of Zionism philosophy. During his visit to Ramallah, Lula said he took active participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past and that he is willing to talk to all the parties involved in the region including the Hamas.

 

Also according to Lula, Iran has the right to pursue a domestic nuclear program under the supervision of the NPT. This is while the Israeli regime, refusing to join the NPT, continually hides over 200 weapons of mass destruction somewhere in that environmentally delicate as well as historically important region.

 

Earlier, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Liberman refused to meet Lula, because the Brazilian President skipped a visit to the grave of Theodor Herzl.