Brasilia, November 2 (RHC)-- Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom said that he intends to move the country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

According to Israel Hayom, this is the president-elect’s first foreign media interview after winning the elections against progressive candidate Fernando Haddad.   In the interview, Bolsonaro said that Palestine has to be recognized as a country first to have an embassy.  "As for the Palestinian Embassy, it was built too close to the presidential palace. … No embassy can be so close to the presidential palace, so we intend to move it.  There's no other way, in my opinion.  Other than that, Palestine first needs to be a state to have the right to an embassy."

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.  The annexation of occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 is the means of achieving the same.  The Palestinians, on the other hand, consider East Jerusalem as the capital of free Palestine.  The international community does not recognize Israel’s ownership of East Jerusalem but earlier this year the U.S. moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a move to recognize the same as Israel's capital.

Speaking about supporting Israel in the U.N., Bolsonaro said: "You can count on having our vote in the U.N. I know that often the vote is almost symbolic, but it helps to define the position a country intends to take.  Rest assured that you can depend on our vote in the U.N. on almost all the issues having to do with Israel."

Bolsonaro and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “closeness” is also reflected by the fact that Netanyahu might attend the president-elect’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 1, 2019, the first Israeli prime minister to do so.   Haaretz reported this week that Netanyahu’s attendance is highly probable.  The Israeli prime minister also spoke to Bolsonaro over the phone Monday and congratulated him on winning the election while inviting him to Israel.