Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, criticized President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva again for his statements regarding Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip and the cut in humanitarian aid to the region’s inhabitants. Katz declared Lula persona non grata on social media.
“We will not forgive and we will not forget — on my behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Israel, I informed President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words,” posted the Israeli ambassador.
“This morning, I summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Israel near Yad Vashem, the place that testifies more than any other to what the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews, including members of my family,” Katz stated.
“The comparison made by Brazilian President Lula between Israel’s just war against Hamas and the actions of Hitler and the Nazis, who destroyed 6 million Jews, is a serious anti-Semitic attack that profanes the memory of those who died in the Holocaust,” he added.
On Sunday (February 18), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula’s speech amounted to “crossing a red line.” “The words of the President of Brazil are shameful and serious. This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”
What did Lula say?
In a press conference during his official trip to Ethiopia, the Brazilian president classified the deaths of civilians in Gaza as genocide, criticized developed countries for reducing or cutting humanitarian aid to the region, and said that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has never existed in history. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
“It is not a war between soldiers and soldiers. It is a war between a highly trained army and women and children,” Lula said.
He stated that it was necessary to condemn both the Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians and “Israel’s disproportionate response.”
The Gaza Health Ministry claims that more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7 against Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Source: Agência Brasil and The New York Times