Israeli FM says he boycotted Brazilian president

Israel’s foreign minister confirmed Tuesday that he boycotted meetings with the visiting Brazilian president, claiming he refused to visit the grave of the founder of modern Zionism.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli media he did not attend President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s speech at the Israeli parliament on Monday or two other meetings.

Lieberman said he was upset at Silva’s decision not to visit late Zionist leader Theodor Herzl’s grave, especially while agreeing to lay a wreath at the tomb of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday.

“A person who is not prepared to visit Herzl’s grave but is visiting Arafat’s grave, I don’t accept that,” Lieberman told the Israeli news Web site YNet. He claimed the snub breached protocol.

A spokesman from the office of the Brazilian president countered that visiting Herzl’s grave was not accepted protocol for a foreign leader’s trip.

“It was never even considered as part of the president’s agenda,” the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. He said the Israeli response was odd, considering recent trips to Israel by other leaders did not include a visit to Herzl’s grave.

The official said French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not visit Herzl’s grave on their latest trips to Israel.

Israeli officials say the trip to Herzl’s grave was reinstated recently. Last week visiting Vice President Joe Biden visited the grave site.

The diplomatic spat threatened to overshadow an otherwise warm reception for Silva. On Monday, he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed for their governments to hold joint meetings every two years.

Lieberman, known for his pugnacious style, has insisted Israel will not stand by when offended by other nations. His year as foreign minister has repeatedly been marred by diplomatic incidents.

He protested to Turkey over a TV series that reportedly portrayed Israeli soldiers murdering innocent children and demanded that Sweden condemn an article in a Swedish newspaper that alleged Israeli soldiers harvested the organs of dead Palestinians. Sweden refused, and its foreign minister canceled a trip to Israel at the time of the dispute.

Lieberman met with Silva on a South American trip last year, in a bid to enlist help in stymieing Iran’s alleged effort to build a nuclear weapon.

Silva said his visit – the first for a sitting president of Brazil – was “a mission of peace” that he hoped would help his country emerge as a bigger player in foreign affairs.

He continued to the West Bank on Tuesday for meetings with Palestinian officials and was to depart to neighboring Jordan on Wednesday.