As rare as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s rejection of Dani Dayan would be, it is equally unusual to be so public about the matter rather than keeping it behind closed diplomatic doors.

Tzipi Hotoveli, the deputy Israeli foreign minister, in a statement to media did not address the report directly, but said that Dayan’s “public trajectory and ideology ought to be an advantage, and not a disadvantage in representing the position of the current government, which supports our right to settlements in Judea and Samaria”.

Dayan, 59, the former head of the Yesha Council, which represents the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, was approved by the administration of Benjamin Netanyahu on 6 September. However, if Israel stands by the appointment, it could lead to a crisis in relations between the two countries.

The communique reportedly came as part of back-channel messages between Rio de Janeiro and Jerusalem in an attempt to warn Prime Minister Netanyahu not to go ahead with the appointment.

But more than 40 Brazilian social movements, including some of Rousseff’s supporters, have signed a petition calling on the government to reject Dayan’s appointment over his “acts in clear violation of global laws and the basic rights of the Palestinian people”.

According to protocol, a host nation can reject the appointment of an ambassador, but this is something that happens only very rarely.

Netanyahu has indicated recently that he views developing markets – in Brazil in particular, and in South America in general – as a high-priority item, just as he is keen on developing economic ties with China and Japan. Ahead of the Knesset elections earlier this year, Dayan was placed 21st on the right-wing Jewish Home party’s Knesset list, but backed out of the party before the vote.

Netanyahu has also made the controversial decision to appoint Fiamma Nirenstein, a former member of the Italian Parliament and journalist who immigrated to Israel, as the Israeli ambassador to Rome. He later began working for a software firm and shortly afterward co-founded his own, the hugely successful Elad Systems.