Impartiality as a lack of interest: Israel, Brazil, the Jewish diaspora, and the question of Jerusalem

Persuading foreign countries to move their diplomatic missions from Tel-Aviv to West Jerusalem was a paramount diplomatic objective of Israel in the 1960s, as such an act implied recognition of the city as Israel's legitimate capital. Based on diplomatic documents from Israeli and Brazilian archives, this article portrays Israel's attempts to convince Brazil, the world's largest Latin American and Catholic country, to consent to such a transfer, and analyzes the reasons for the failure of Israel's secret pressure campaign, which was known as the "Jerusalem Plan" and supported by prominent and influential Brazilian individuals of Jewish origin. In spite of obtaining the Brazilian president's authorization of the transfer, the plan was eventually derailed by the Brazilian foreign ministry for standing in contrast to Brazil's traditional position of equidistance toward the Arab-Israeli conflict while failing to serve in any substantial way the Brazilian national interest of social and economic development.