Short answer: Yes. As of August 2026, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president from 2019 to 2022, has one of the more consistent pro-Israel records of any recent Latin American head of state. He is alive but currently imprisoned in Brazil, serving a 27-year sentence for a coup plot and, as of mid-2026, under humanitarian house arrest for health reasons. He has not been entirely absent from public life, appearing by AI-generated video at a July 2026 campaign event, but no further Israel-related activity has been reported.
What Jair Bolsonaro has actually said and done
- Late December 2018 to early January 2019: As president-elect, Bolsonaro reaffirmed a campaign pledge to move Brazil's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Bolsonaro told him it was a matter of "when, not if," according to Al Jazeera.
- March 28, 2019: Days before his first visit to Israel as president, Bolsonaro walked back the full embassy-move promise. He told reporters in Brasilia that his government would likely open a "business/trade office" in Jerusalem instead, after Brazil's agriculture sector warned a full embassy move could hurt halal meat exports to Arab countries. This was reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Times of Israel.
- March 31, 2019: Bolsonaro traveled to Jerusalem to meet Netanyahu, a visit Netanyahu described as opening "a new era of partnership" between Brazil and Israel, per JNS.
- April 1, 2019: During that trip, Bolsonaro became the first foreign head of state to visit the Western Wall together with Netanyahu, a break from usual diplomatic protocol that the Times of Israel and JTA both called historic.
- December 2019: In place of the embassy move, Brazil opened a trade office (APEX-Brasil) in Jerusalem, arranged in part by Bolsonaro's son, congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro. The main embassy stayed in Tel Aviv. Details are in the Times of Israel.
- During his 2019-2022 presidency (exact date undated): Bolsonaro received the Friends of Zion Award at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, an honor the museum says recognized his consistent support for Israel, according to the Friends of Zion Museum.
- February 25, 2024: After leaving office, Bolsonaro waved an Israeli flag at a mass rally on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo. The gesture came days after President Lula da Silva compared Israel's military campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust, and it read as a direct rebuttal, per the Times of Israel.
- November 2025 through August 2026 (ongoing): Bolsonaro has been imprisoned since November 2025 on a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election. He was hospitalized with pneumonia in March 2026 and, as of July 2026, remains under humanitarian house arrest on health grounds. No Israel-related public activity has been reported during this period, according to U.S. News (AP) and an earlier AP report.
Context worth knowing
Bolsonaro's pro-Israel positioning tracked closely with Netanyahu-era diplomacy and with his own evangelical Christian political base in Brazil, not with any personal Jewish ancestry or identity; no reputable source documents a Jewish family connection. It is worth being clear-eyed about the one promise that never came through: the full embassy move to Jerusalem, the pledge that drew the most attention during his 2018 campaign, was ultimately not carried out. Brazil's embassy remained in Tel Aviv, and the Jerusalem trade office was a smaller substitute, a retreat driven largely by pressure from Brazil's agribusiness sector over halal exports to Arab states. Within that caveat, the rest of his record in office (the Western Wall visit alongside Netanyahu, the Friends of Zion Award, warm engagement with Israeli officials) was steady and demonstrably pro-Israel, and he kept up symbolic gestures, like the 2024 flag display, well after leaving the presidency. His successor, Lula da Silva, has taken a markedly more critical public stance toward Israel's conduct in Gaza, which is the backdrop for that 2024 rally moment. Since Bolsonaro's imprisonment in November 2025 and the health-driven house arrest that followed, there is no record of further statements or actions on Israel; his political activity generally has been sidelined by the legal case and hospitalizations.
The bottom line
Jair Bolsonaro built a well-documented, multi-year record of pro-Israel statements, symbolic gestures, and diplomatic outreach, from the Western Wall visit and the Friends of Zion Award to the Jerusalem trade office and the 2024 flag display, even though his signature promise of a full embassy move to Jerusalem was never fulfilled. As of August 2026 he is alive but imprisoned and in poor health, which has stopped any recent public activity on the issue.
Carry that same pride, wherever you stand
Whatever one makes of any single foreign leader's record, the instinct to stand visibly with Israel is one a lot of our customers share every day. If you want a simple, everyday way to do it, our Support Israel collection has pieces built for exactly that, including the I Stand With Israel bracelet, a small, wearable statement for anyone who wants to keep that support visible.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
