São Paulo – Diplomats and Arab community members will celebrate the Arab Day on December 10 in the Brazilian capital Brasília. The guests-only event will include a dinner and music and folk performances. The CEO of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, will be honored.
Although the event will take place this week, the actual date was in the last one. “The Arab League has decided to celebrate the Arab Day on December 4, the date on which it is celebrated worldwide,” explained Ibrahim Alzeben, the Palestinian ambassador and dean of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brasília.
According to Alzeben, the decision to honor Michel Alaby was made unanimously by the Council of Arab Ambassadors “for his background, for being someone who keeps working for bilateral relations between Brazil and the Arab world in different aspects,” the ambassador stressed.
Alaby does not regard the honor as strictly personal, but as an acknowledgement of the Arab Chamber’s “directors, president, former presidents and staff. Without our staff, we would not have succeeded in reaching the level of economic and cultural ties [with the Arab world] that we have reached,” he said.
Alzeben notes that the date is being celebrated in Brazil for the third time. The Brazilian vice president Michel Temer (of the party PMDB) was also honored in the past. “We are glad to celebrate with this party and to show our culture to the Brazilian people,” the ambassador asserted.
“We are working for our ties to multiply as much as possible. Despite the world economic crisis and the domestic scenario in the Arab world, cultural and economic exchange has remained at a satisfactory level. Proof of that is the fact that the Summit of South American-Arab Countries was held in Saudi Arabia and several Arab authorities visited Brazil,” Alzeben stated.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
