A diplomatic feud has flared between Israel and Brazil after Brazil’s president compared Israel’s war against Hamas to the Holocaust.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the rift Sunday with remarks rebuking Israel, which he delivered at the African Union Summit, according to The New York Times.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments,” he said, before adding, “It did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” he said, according to the BBC.
BREAKING: Brazil recalls its Ambassador to Israel.
Israel said Brazilian President Lula da Silva was not welcome in the country in a diplomatic rift over the South American leader’s comparison of Israel’s war on Gaza to Hitler’s treatment of Jews. pic.twitter.com/fDDvy6dIyD
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) February 19, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the comments “shameful” and said Lula “crossed a red line,” according to the Times of Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz added by saying Lula will be banned until an apology and retraction is forthcoming.
“We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious anti-Semitic attack,” a statement from Katz’s office said Katz told Brazil’s ambassador to Israel, the BBC reported.
“In my name and the name of the citizens of Israel — tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back,” Katz said.
Is Brazil wrong?
On Monday, Lula withdrew ambassador Frederico Meyer “for consultations,” a foreign ministry statement said, according to the New York Times.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry also said Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine was called in for a reprimand after Meyer had been scolded in Israel, the Times of Israel reported.
The Times of Israel, citing a diplomatic source it did not name, said that Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Zonshine had a “harsh, but appropriate” conversation and that Vieira “demonstrated dissatisfaction” with Israel’s actions.
It said among other things, Meyer was forced to listen to a reprimand in Hebrew with no translation available.
Lula has said no retraction will be forthcoming, according to Reuters.
BREAKING: Reuters reports that 🇧🇷 Brazil will not retract comments made by its president Lula da Silva in which he drew a parallel between the Holocaust and Israel’s war with Hamas
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) February 20, 2024
As an indication of the pressure on Israel to pause or stop its attacks in Gaza, the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution sponsored by Algeria that could call for an immediate end to the war, according to NBC.
Although the U.S. has vowed to veto that resolution, it is backing a rival one, which calls for a six-week pause in the fighting and opposes any ground operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
