São Paulo – Ambassador from Palestine in Brasília since 2008 and dean of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil, Ibrahim Alzeben believes in a promising relation between Brazil and the Arab countries over the next 20 years, as the interchange between Brazilian and Arab cultures grow stronger by the day. This belief comes from the experience of someone who has known the Latin American country for over 30 years and saw the diplomatic, trade and cultural ties deepen since.
Regarding the past 20 years, Alzeben says the contact between Brazil and the Arab countries has evolved both in trade, having “nearly tripled” to USD 32 billion in 2022, and diplomacy, with the growing presence of Arab ambassadors in Brasília, and vice versa. “International relations sure have changed in the past 20 years. This change has been conductive to the rapprochement between Brazil and the Arab countries,” he said. This is the perspective of someone who has devoted much of his life to Brazil and Latin America.
Alzeben wasn’t born in Palestine but in neighboring Jordan in 1953. His family sought refuge in Irbid after the creation of the state of Israel. “I finished school in Jordan, started working as a journalist in our family’s newspaper. Later on, I had the opportunity to travel to Latin America. I studied in Cuba and started my diplomatic career in 1979 as cultural attaché,” he recalls.
Cuba was the beginning of a Latin American path that in subsequent years would pass through Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil and Paraguay, as the Embassy of Palestine in Brasília is also the diplomatic representation for the neighboring country. In his first Brazilian mission, Alzeben spent six years traveling through Brazil.
“There was no consular work back then. It was more of a community work, so to speak. I was the deputy head of the mission in charge of community affairs.” To fulfill his mission, Alzeben traveled by car through the Latin American country. He visited Manaus, São Paulo, Rio, Chuí, Mato Grosso… “All the wonderful places in Brazil.” “I believe those travels around Brazil from 1989 to 1996 were key and made it easier for me to come back as an ambassador in 2008,” he recalls.
Shortly after the creation of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994, Alzeben went back to Palestine, where he worked at the Department of Latin America at the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency. From there, he was appointed as the ambassador to Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba, where his Latin American journey had started. It was also there he spent his last stint before coming to Brazil.
Since then, Alzeben has devoted his life to fostering Arab-Brazil relations but also to a cause that is in the heart of Palestinian claims, his own diplomatic career and even his birth – the establishment of the Palestinian state.
“While this sovereignty isn’t assured, all interchange is weakened, so we expect Brazil to keep contributing for us to gain this independence. This political support from part of Brazil is crucial to put an end on the Israeli military occupation and allow it then for Palestine to be a sovereign free country again and establish relations on equal terms with all countries and our friendly Brazil in particular,” said the ambassador.
The Palestinian struggle for statehood continues, and new roads open for the following years. Alzeben sees opportunities, but they hinge on constant and mutual exchange and knowledge.
“The Arab world is much more than oil and market, and Brazil is much more than meats and foods. We can exchange further when we open a little bit more on the cultural side, get to know our singularities, our cultures. Thankfully, communication now helps to learn more about what the Arab world is, how it thinks, its history,” said the diplomat, giving the example of the online seminar “The influence of Arabic in the Portuguese Language” that was held recently. “I believe that when we know more across all aspects, we have more possibilities of interchange and growth,” he said.
A Jordan-born Palestinian with a life and career across Latin America, Alzeben believes a larger interchange between the countries is possible but believes his own personal interchange with Brazil is complete. “I’m fond of Brazil as a whole. I don’t feel like a foreigner anywhere here.”
Translation by Guilherme Miranda
