A petition in August called the appointment “a violation of the global legitimacy and sovereignty of Brazil”.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has reportedly rejected the appointment of Israeli settler Dani Dayan as the Israeli ambassador to her country, media reports said yesterday.

Various organizations and individuals have been pressuring Rousseff to reject Dayan due to his background in opposing the rights of Palestinians and his contribution to the illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

Brazil’s president is seemingly prepared to exercise the rarely-utilized rejection of an appointment of ambassador citing ties to the post-1967 sector of the Israeli populace.

Israeli Ynet news reports that Roussef sent messages to Israel expressing her discomfort with the appointment of Dayan as Israeli ambassador to Brazil because of his ties to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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.

If the Israeli premier continues to insist on the appointment, the case could wind up being a blow to his government and Israel, given that Brazil could decide to make its rejection open and official, Yediot reported. Israel has always sought better relations with Brazil as one of the most prosperous economic countries in the world and a major power in South America.

Just days ago, Brazil surprised many by abstaining on a resolution at the worldwide Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference to impose monitoring of Israel nuclear sites.

He was chosen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a political appointee, and his posting was approved by the cabinet in early September.

Without mentioning Rousseff’s reported misgivings, Hotoveli 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”. “I assured the prime minister I would not spare any effort or creativity in fulfilling the strategic task given to me”. He later began working for a software firm and shortly afterward co-founded his own, the hugely successful Elad Systems.