The diplomatic crisis caused by the declarations of Brazilian President Lula comparing the war in Gaza to the Shoah escalated on Monday February 19, Lula now being “persona non grata” in Israel, whose ambassador was summoned by the government of Brasilia. A look back at this diplomatic crisis in four acts.
Act I: Lula compares the war in Gaza with the Shoah
From Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is attending an African Union summit, the Brazilian president sparks a controversy, accusing Israel of committing a “genocide” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, comparing the Israeli offensive to the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” Lula told reporters. “This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It is a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.” “What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has not happened at any other time in history. In fact, it has happened before: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” he said. the Brazilian leader, veteran of the left. The 78-year-old Brazilian president condemned the October 7 Hamas attack, calling it a “terrorist” act. But he has since been very critical of Israel.
Hamas “welcomed” in a press release Lula’s statements, which according to it are “an exact description of what (its) people are suffering” in Gaza and reveal “the enormity of the crime” committed by Israel “with the open support from the Biden administration.”
Act II: Netanyahu deplores a “red line” crossed
Immediate reaction in Israel, at the highest summit of the State. “The Brazilian president’s comments are shameful and serious” and “I decided with Foreign Minister Israel Katz to immediately summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel to strongly lecture him,” the Prime Minister reacted on Sunday afternoon Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel Katz clarified on X that the Brazilian ambassador would be summoned on Monday. “Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is to cross the red line,” added Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement.
“By comparing Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization, to the Holocaust, President da Silva has dishonored the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state as the most virulent anti-Semites. He should be ashamed,” added Benjamin Netanyahu in the evening, in a speech delivered in Jerusalem to the Conference of Presidents of the Main American Jewish Organizations.
Act III: Lula “persona non grata” in Israel
Consequence of this escalation: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is persona non grata in Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Monday. “I informed President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his remarks,” Israel Katz said during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
“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,” Israel Katz said during the ceremony.
Government spokesperson Eylon Levy echoed this sentiment on Monday, when he denounced, during a press briefing, “the perpetrators of a real genocide, the Hamas death squads who burned people alive. entire families, cremated them and reduced them to human ashes on October 7.” “We will not tolerate leaders around the world attempting to give Hamas political or legal cover,” he added.
Act IV: the Israeli ambassador summoned
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil on Monday. “Faced with the seriousness of this morning’s statements from the Israeli government, Minister Mauro Vieira […] summoned the Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine” today in Rio de Janeiro, indicates a press release from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also “recalled for consultations the Brazilian Ambassador in Tel Aviv, Frederico Meyer, who will leave for the Brazil tomorrow (Tuesday).”
The Brazilian minister is in Rio de Janeiro to prepare the meeting scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of the heads of diplomacy of the G20, of which Brazil holds the rotating presidency.