Israel has made Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva persona non grata unless he withdraws his comparison of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi genocide in World War II. “We will neither forget nor forgive,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Brazil’s ambassador, according to his office.
“It is a serious anti-Semitic attack. Tell President Lula on my behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Israel that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back,” Katz was quoted as saying. Israel has accused Lula of trivializing the Holocaust and insulting the Jewish people.
Katz had summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Yad Vashem about the comments. The Holocaust memorial near Jerusalem is “the place that bears witness more than any other to what the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews, including my own family,” Katz wrote on Monday on X, formerly Twitter. According to a media report, Lula then recalled his ambassador to Israel for consultations. This was reported by the newspaper “Folha de S. Paulo”.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” Lula told reporters on Sunday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit. “This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers,” said the left-wing Brazilian head of state about the Israeli army’s fight against the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas. “This is a war between a highly armed army and women and children.” Then Lula added: “What is happening to the Palestinian people in Gaza has never happened before in history. Yes, it already happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Criticism of Lula continued in Israel. “It is extremely disappointing that the Brazilian leader, a country of great prestige, distorts the Holocaust and spreads anti-Semitic statements in such a blatant manner,” said the head of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Dani Dayan, in a statement on Monday, according to Kathpress. Lula’s statements are not only outrageous, but also deeply hateful and a sign of ignorance, said Dayan. He accused Lula of anti-Semitism. Comparisons between Israel’s legitimate self-defense after the Hamas terror attack and the “heinous atrocities of the Nazis, who systematically exterminated six million Jews, are unacceptable,” Dayan said.
According to his office, Israeli President Yitzhak (Isaac) Herzog criticized Israel’s comparisons with Hitler on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, but without mentioning Lula by name. He strongly condemns “the immoral distortion of history,” said Herzog, who called on world leaders to “unequivocally condemn such actions.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reacted with criticism on Sunday evening. With his comparisons, Lula “dishonored the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state like the worst anti-Semite,” said Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office.
2024-02-19 18:19:38