(Brasilia) The diplomatic crisis caused by the declarations of Brazilian President Lula comparing the war in Gaza to the Shoah escalated on Monday: Lula is now “persona non grata” in Israel, whose ambassador was summoned by the government of Brasilia.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva caused a storm by accusing Israel on Sunday of committing a “genocide” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, drawing a comparison between the Israeli offensive and the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis.
After these statements, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Monday that Lula was persona non grata in Israel.
“I have informed President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his remarks,” Katz said during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. in Jerusalem, where he summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel.
“The comments made by Brazilian President Lula when he compared the just war of the State of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred Jews, to Hitler and the Nazis are a disgrace and a serious anti-Semitic attack against the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” added Mr. Katz during this ceremony, which AFP attended.
PHOTO AHMAD GHARABLI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Israel Katz
The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs responded by summoning the Israeli ambassador to Brazil on Monday.
“Faced with the seriousness of this morning’s statements from the Israeli government, Minister Mauro Vieira […] summoned Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine” to Rio de Janeiro, indicates a press release from the Brazilian ministry.
He also “recalled for consultations the Brazilian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Frederico Meyer, who will leave for Brazil tomorrow (Tuesday)”.
“We will not tolerate leaders around the world attempting to give Hamas political or legal cover,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said at a press briefing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced “shameful and serious” comments on Sunday.
Satisfaction of Hamas
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” Lula told the press from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was attending an African Union summit.
These statements are the most virulent ever made on the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas by Lula, a prominent voice from the South whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20.
The head of Brazilian diplomacy is in Rio de Janeiro to prepare the meeting scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of the heads of diplomacy of the G20.
Hamas welcomed Lula’s remarks as “an accurate description of what (his) people are suffering” in Gaza and reveal “the enormity of the crime” committed by Israel.
The 78-year-old left-wing Brazilian president condemned the October 7 Hamas attack as a “terrorist” act. But he has since been very critical of Israel’s military campaign of retaliation.
The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil resulted in the deaths of 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
The bombings and ground offensive since carried out by Israel in Gaza have killed at least 29,092 people, the vast majority civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Lula’s controversial statement “referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people”, the wife of the Brazilian head of state, Rosangela da Silva, known as “Janja”, commented on X, targeting the Israeli authorities.
She expressed her “pride” in her husband who, “since the start of this conflict in the Gaza Strip, has defended peace and mainly the right to life of women and children, who form the majority the victims “.