Israel today declared “persona non grata” the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who yesterday described the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip as a genocide comparable to the Holocaust.
“This morning I summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel at the Holocaust Museum, the place that bears witness more than anything else to what the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews, including members of my family,” reported the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz.
During the celebration of the 37th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lula criticized the war that Israel has maintained in Gaza since October 7, 2023 after the brutal attacks of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas against Israeli territory in which around 1,200 people died and around 250 were kidnapped.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” the president of Brazil declared to the press this Sunday, and said that something similar to “a war between a very prepared army and women and children” It had not happened before in history, except “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
“The Brazilian president’s comments are shameful and severe,” the Israeli Foreign Minister said today on social network X, who stressed that “no one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also criticized Lula in X for supporting, he said, “a genocidal terrorist organization, Hamas, and in doing so, embarrassing his people.”
For his part, in a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Lula’s words as “shameful and serious” and argued that they seek to “trivialize the Holocaust” and “Israel’s right to defend itself.”
“Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line. “Israel fights to defend her and to ensure her future until total victory and does so while respecting international law,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
This Sunday’s statements are the most forceful issued so far on the conflict by Lula, an important representative of the countries of the global south and who holds the rotating presidency of the G20.
The two largest Israeli entities in Brazil joined this Sunday in the condemnation of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu against a statement by the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who accused Israel of emulating Adolf Hitler and committing “genocide” in Gaza .
“The Brazilian Government is adopting an extreme and unbalanced position in relation to the tragic conflict in the Middle East, and abandoning the tradition of balance and search for dialogue in Brazilian foreign policy,” the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) stated in a note.
Likewise, he assured that it distorts reality and “offends the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants.”
This Sunday, in the Ethiopian capital, he said at a press conference that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” and noted that it is similar to “a war between a very prepared army and women and children” that had not happened before, except “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
The Israelite Federation of the State of São Paulo, which brings together most of the Jewish community in Brazil, also protested in a note.
“Comparing the legitimate defense of the State of Israel against a terrorist group that makes no effort to murder Israelis and Jews with Hitler’s death industry is infinitely evil,” he said.
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