Ambassador Jorge Torres Pereira, who has already represented Portugal in Ramallah and Telavive, “excited” Frederico Nascimento, then his “number two” when he was placed at that post. Now Frederico Nascimento was part of an entourage that was surprised by shots of Israelite soldiers shots when he was next to a refugee camp in the West Bank
The Portuguese government should stop waiting for the European Union and taking a position on Israel – whether with a note of repudiation, reducing the staff at the Israeli Embassy in Lisbon or formally recognizing the state of Palestine, the CNN Portugal suggests the specialist in international relations Tiago André Lopes. Otherwise, he says, Portugal is in danger of giving the message that “the windows of our embassy in Kiev are worth more than our ambassador’s life in Jenin.”
Tiago André Lopes refers to a Russian attack with missiles that, in December last year, reached the Portuguese embassy in Kiev, and which resulted in light damage to the building, such as party glass and warm doors. The expert recalls the immediate reaction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time – “in less than a minute,” he says – to compare it to the government’s reaction to this Wednesday’s attack on Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) against one, composed of representatives from various countries, including Portugal’s head of representation in Ramallah, Frederico Nascimento.
Frederico Nascimento was once “the number two” of Ambassador Jorge Torres Pereira, former representative of Portugal in Ramallah and Telavive. “It was my direct collaborator when I was in Paris and I even excited him when he was placed in Ramallah, since it had been my previous post,” recalls the ambassador, in statements to CNN Portugal.
The diplomats were visiting in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, organized by the Palestinian authority and coordinated with the Israelite army, having been authorized a particular route, since it is an active combat zone. The group was by the entrance of Jenin’s refugee camp when he heard shots.
“The simple fact that it opens fire against diplomats is significant”
According to ambassador Jorge Torres Pereira, who spoke in the meantime with Frederico Nascimento, the representative said to him that the entourage heard the shots “the moment they were entering the cars”, which were properly characterized. “It cannot be said that they were shot directly, but the simple fact that it opens fire against diplomats is significant and is in a line of incidents with journalists, incidents with United Nations staff,” says Jorge Torres Pereira.
Later, the IDF issued a statement in which they claim that the entourage – which, in addition to the Portuguese representative, included representatives from European Union countries such as France, Spain or Italy, but also from the United Kingdom, Russia, Turkey, China, Canada, Mexico, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco – “Deviated from the approved route and entered the area to which it entered the area to which It was not authorized. ” They also confirmed that the Israeli soldiers who operate there “fired warning shots to distance them.” There is no record of injuries or damage.
For Tiago André Lopes, this clarification “does not glue”. “The life of a Portuguese ambassador, who was on a accredited mission, with characterized cars, with flags. The images are very clear (you can see them above) – it is a diplomatic train that deflects a streets, it is true, from the combined path, but this is not the reason to attack the train,” he argues.
This incident shows that “there are no truly immune or protected sectors in the current situation in Gaza,” says ambassador Jorge Torres Pereira. “What we are realizing this attack is that the population of the West Bank, when they are given indications, as if they were pawns – not to say worse things – runs the risk of being attacked at close range,” adds Tiago André Lopes.
Portuguese government must consider “the only thing that diplomatically hurts” Israel
Faced with this episode, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a note to the newsrooms in which “condemns the attack” and summoned the Israeli ambassador to Portugal, Oren Rosenblat. The governments of Italy and France did the same with the respective ambassadors. “This is for nothing,” criticizes Tiago André Lopes, who understands that “this work is a pitiful form of the Portuguese state to try to delay what he should do, which is a note of repudiation to effectively condemn what happened.” This note of repudiation – which, for Tiago André Lopes, is already coming late, taking into account the evolution of the conflict in the Gaza Strip – must have a language that “cannot be dubious, it cannot be excuse, it cannot be something ‘ready, it will not happen again, because we already receive guarantees that it will not happen again’.”
“This is no longer enough,” the interior relations expert wins. “It has to be a note to say, ‘What happened is serious and, from what happened, the Portuguese State reserves the right to subsequent measures.”
These later measures may not even happen, Tiago André Lopes, which gives as an example the reduction of the staff at the Israeli embassy in Portugal and “starting to ponder – because it seems to me that it is the only thing that is diplomatically hurt – the recognition of the state of Palestine.”
An opinion shared by Ambassador Jorge Torres Pereira, who considers that, more than a humanitarian issue, what is happening in Gaza “is a political problem” and, therefore, must have a political answer: “I think it cannot be postponed for much longer the recognition of the Palestinian State by the Portuguese Government.”
“Of course, the recognition of the state of Palestine is an essentially symbolic gesture,” admits the ambassador. “But right now, it is a politically very important symbolic gesture. It does not seem to me that there is nothing more symbolic, nothing more important, than giving a sign of hope to the Palestinian population that their political aspirations to a state have not been forgotten.”
“We are diplomatically losing the Ukraine War in the Middle East”
Tiago André Lopes understands that “it is, at the very least, strange” if Portugal does not do any of this and maintains a “passive” stance against the situation in Gaza, safeguarding itself in the EU position. “The government cannot continue to hide behind the European Union, because the European Union will not react. Germany, Hungary and Czech Republic will block – as they have blocked, moreover, everything that has happened to the UN level – a joint decision” to effectively condemn the Israeli State for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, foresees the expert.
This incident in Jenin comes the week when the European Commission has announced that it will begin a review of the Association Agreement with Israel – an agreement that has been in force since 2000 and aims to facilitate political dialogue and trade between the two regions. Kaja Kallas, head of European diplomacy, considered that it is time to “advance to this exercise,” after the Netherlands had a proposal in this regard at the meeting of the 27 Member States diplomacy heads. But not everyone is in agreement – Germany, for example, has already argued that the UE -Israel association agreement is “an important forum” where “crucial issues” are discussed.
This stance demonstrates that “Germany is too attached to the historical past and feels that, in a compensation logic, it cannot attack or criticize Israel,” theorizes Tiago André Lopes. “What happens is that Germany once again is positioning on the wrong side of history, because it is allowing, by inaction, that everything we are seeing – the annexation of a territory, the extermination of a people, the instrumentalization of hunger.”
By watching all this “passively, without reacting”, the European Union is “normalizing” what is happening in the Middle East. “And if we are normalizing attacks on civilians in the Gaza and West Bank, then we have no political morality or ethical to condemn any other conflict,” argues the expert, returning to parallel with the war in Ukraine. “We are diplomatically losing the Ukraine War in the Middle East,” he says.
