JERUSALEM -- The appointment of Israel's next ambassador to Brazil is in trouble over his ties to the West Bank settlement movement.
Brazil has expressed objections to the appointment of Dani Dayan, raising questions about when or whether he will take up the post. The affair reflects international impatience over Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands claimed by the Palestinians.
A successful businessman, Dayan is an immigrant from Argentina and familiar with Latin American matters.
But Dayan also is one of the world's best-known West Bank settlers, serving for many years as the chairman and chief spokesman for the movement. That work, in which he defended settlements on TV screens around the world and spoke against Palestinian independence, is threatening to cost him the ambassadorship.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported this week that Brazil has expressed misgivings over the appointment because of Dayan's ties to the settlements.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's office declined comment, as did the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Dayan also refused to comment. But a Brazilian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government isn't speaking publicly about the matter, confirmed the report.
Israel is not believed to have had a prominent ambassador who was a settler, although two-term former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lived in a settlement and is an ultranationalist known for his anti-Arab views. If Dayan's appointment were canceled, it would be the first time an Israeli ambassadorial appointment had been scuttled over the settlement fray.
The Brazilian concerns represent the latest sign of international displeasure over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians claim the two areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future state. The Israeli settlements in those territories are opposed internationally as they are seen as undermining the goal of dividing the land between two countries. More than 550,000 Jewish settlers live on occupied land.
Israel has long brushed aside international criticism of settlement construction, arguing the matter should be resolved in negotiations with the Palestinians. But the international community has grown increasingly impatient.
The United Nations General Assembly in 2012 accepted "Palestine" as a nonmember observer state, a largely symbolic act that recognized its borders along the pre-1967 lines. An international movement that advocates a boycott of Israeli settlement products has begun to gain steam, and European Union officials say the bloc is in the final stages of a plan that would explicitly label settlement products exported to Europe.
Brazil's leaders in recent years have been vocal advocates of the Palestinian cause.
In 2010, the Brazilian government recognized the state of Palestine along the pre-1967 lines. Under Rousseff's leadership, Brazil also voted in favor of Palestine in the 2012 vote at the U.N., and last year it recalled its ambassador from Israel to protest the country's military offensive against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman subsequently called Brazil a "diplomatic dwarf," angering the Brazilians and forcing Israel's president to issue an apology.
Despite the ideological differences, Israel and Brazil enjoy strong trade ties, with fast-developing Brazil showing interest in key Israeli technologies.
When Netanyahu appointed Dayan last month, he said Latin America "is one of the main objectives" for Israeli trade growth.
"I am confident that Dani Dayan will bring to the post his considerable experience and will deepen relations between Israel and Brazil," he said at the time.
It remains unclear how the matter will be resolved. While Dayan's appointment has been approved by the Israeli Cabinet, Israel has not yet asked Brazil for permission to send him.
The two countries, wary of a public confrontation, are discussing the matter behind the scenes before Israel decides whether to press forward with the appointment. It is not known how hard Israel will press the matter or how strong the Brazilian opposition is.
The contention has been fueled in part by a similar debate at home, where liberal Israelis have grown increasingly alarmed by Israel's growing international isolation over the settlement issue. Netanyahu's critics say that nearly 50 years of occupation is hurting Israel's international standing. Some say continued settlement growth is effectively making Israel inseparable from the Palestinians, putting the country on the way to a binational identity in which Arabs could one day outnumber Jews.
Information for this article was contributed by Brad Brooks of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/23/2015