In conversation with Brazilian President Bolsonaro, Israel’s prime minister pledges Israeli assistance with wildfires.
By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21.org
In response to devastating fires that have been raging in the Amazon rainforest for the past three weeks, Israel is sending a firefighting aircraft with flame-retardant chemicals to Brazil.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted on August 25 that he’d received a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering the equipment to aid the firefighting efforts of the Brazilian armed forces and had gratefully accepted.
Netanyahu tweeted that he told Bolsonaro the flame retardants would be dispatched immediately. The Prime Minister’s Office had no further updates as of today.
Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke this evening with Brazilian President @jairbolsonaro and offered to immediately dispatch flame retardants. The Brazilian president thanked the prime minister and accepted the offer.
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 25, 2019
Earlier this month, Brazil declared a state of emergency over the rising number of fires in the region. The Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world, is known as the “lungs of the world” for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. An estimated one million indigenous people and three million species of plants and animals live in the rainforest.