Israel has defended its choice of ambassador to Brazil, following reports that President Dilma Rousseff has rejected the nomination of Dani Dayan over his links with the settler movement.

Speaking on Monday, Tzipi Hotoveli, the deputy minister for foreign affairs, said that Dayan was “the right person to represent Israel at this moment in Brazil”.



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.



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 international laws and the basic rights of the Palestinian people”.



A report published on Sunday by the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, claimed that Rousseff has expressed her displeasure at Dayan’s appointment via private channels.



Before sending an ambassador, diplomatic protocol dictates that foreign governments request permission from the host country, known as an “agrément”. It is extremely rare for a government to refuse publicly to accept an ambassador, meaning that most rejections are conveyed privately.



Itamaraty, the Brazilian foreign office, declined a request for an interview, stating that it does not comment during the process of agrément.



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”.



Born in Buenos Aires in 1959, Dayan ran the Yesha Council from 2007 to 2013, defending the interests of the settlers in the West Bank, now estimated to number 550,000.



In a New York Times editorial from July 2012, Dayan described the two-state solution as a “failed formula” and insisted that the presence of settlers in “all of Judea and Samaria – not just in the so-called settlement blocs – is an irreversible fact”. He currently lives in the settlement of Ma’ale Shomrom.



Despite deepening economic ties, diplomatic relations between Israel and Brazil have rarely been smooth during the 12 years of rule by the leftwing Workers party.

Last year, Brazil recalled its ambassador from Israel after a foreign ministry spokesman labelled the South American country a “diplomatic dwarf” over Brasília’s criticism of the Israeli incursion in Gaza.



On announcing Dayan’s nomination in August this year, Netanyahu expressed hope for a stronger relationship. “Israel is focused on developing its economic relations with South America, with an emphasis on Brazil,” he said.