Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman boycotted Monday’s speech to the Knesset by visiting Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in retaliation for the visitor’s refusal to attend a customary wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of Zionist founder Theodore Herzl.

However Lula, whose country is being embraced by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, plans to pay his respects at the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.