Gaza: the crisis between Brazil and Israel worsens, President Lula declared “persona non grata”
The diplomatic crisis between Brazil and Israel escalated on Monday February 19, when the Hebrew state announced that Lula was now “
persona non grata
” in Israel. The day before, the Brazilian president had described the war waged by Israel in Gaza as a “
genocide
”, comparing it to the Shoah. Faced with this rare escalation between two allied countries, Brasilia summoned its ambassador to Tel Aviv, as well as the Israeli ambassador to Brasilia for consultations.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva delivers a speech during the opening of the 37th ordinary session of the African Union Assembly at the African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 17, 2024 © Reuters
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had already caused a storm
by accusing Israel on Sunday February 18 of committing a “
genocide
”
of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, drawing a comparison between the Israeli offensive and the extermination of Jews by the Nazi Germany during World War II. “
What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide
,” President Lula declared to the press from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was attending an African Union summit. .
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, this has already happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews
,”
insisted the Brazilian leader
, a veteran of the left, while condemning the Hamas attacks.
After these statements, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Monday that Lula was “
persona non grata
” in Israel. “
I informed President Lula that he is
persona non grata
in Israel until he apologizes and withdraws his remarks
,” declared the head of Israeli diplomacy during a visit to the memorial of the Shoah Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He had 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
,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced “
shameful and serious
” comments on Sunday.
A way to “
humiliate
” Brazil publicly?
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira responded by “
recalling for consultations the Brazilian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Frederico Meyer, who will leave for Brazil
” on Tuesday February 20. “
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, a statement from the Brazilian ministry also indicated.
These announcements were made publicly, during
a press conference in the presence of the Brazilian diplomat
at the Holocaust museum. For diplomats
interviewed by the Brazilian channel GloboNews
, it is a way of “
humiliating
” the Brazilian ambassador Frederico Meyer publicly and, consequently, Brazil itself. “
This is not done in diplomacy
,” added another diplomat to the
Brazilian daily
Folha de São Paulo
.
Because normally, warnings to ambassadors are given at the chancellery headquarters.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, speaks to the media alongside Brazilian Ambassador to Tel Aviv Frederico Meyer, after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva compared the Gaza War to the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem, at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. © Dedi Hayun / Reuters
Lula's 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 and the left and whose country currently holds the rotating presidency 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 highly
critical of Israel's retaliatory military campaign
.
Earlier in the day, a message from first lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, defending the president, made clear that Lula had no intention of walking back his comments or apologizing to Israel, as demands the Netanyahu government. Lula’s controversial statement “
referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people
,” she 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
".
Orgulho do me marido que, from the beginning of the conflict in Faixa de Gaza, tem defendido a paz e principalmente o direito à la vida de mulheres et crianças, que sao maoria das vítimas. Now it is certain that if President Lula lived during the period of the Second Guerra, it was his death…
— Janja Lula Silva (@JanjaLula) February 19, 2024
Lula's statements also sparked reactions from the Brazilian Jewish community. The Israeli Confederation of Brazil (Conib) declared that the Lula government "
abandons the tradition of balance and the search for dialogue in Brazilian foreign policy
." The Israeli Federation of the State of São Paulo also regretted the president's speech.
Brazil has a history of neutrality between the two sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It had been
“
in 2010, the first country to recognize the Palestinian state
”,
Lula recalled in Addis Ababa
.
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