- President Lula refuses retraction of his comments comparing Hitler and Israel.
- The Brazilian foreign ministry swiftly summoned the Israeli ambassador for discussions and recalled its own ambassador from Israel.
Brazilian President Lula has asserted that Israel is perpetrating genocide against Palestinians, drawing a comparison between its operations in Gaza and Adolf Hitler’s systematic extermination of Jews.
“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Lula conveyed to journalists in Addis Ababa, where he was participating in an African Union summit on Sunday.
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” he said.
“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Following Israeli officials’ formal rebuke of Lula’s statement, Brazil’s foreign ministry promptly summoned the Israeli ambassador for discussions and withdrew its own ambassador from Israel.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that Lula is not welcome in Israel until he retracts his comments, calling them an ‘anti-Semitic attack’.
PM Lula’s orders are that there will be no retraction and any answers submitted to Israel, will be through diplomatic channels.
