Israel declared on Monday that da Silva is “undesirable” (French)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted - yesterday, Friday - on accusing Israel of committing "genocide" against the Palestinians in Gaza, after he recently sparked a diplomatic crisis by comparing the aggression on the Gaza Strip to the "Jewish Holocaust."
“What Israel is doing is not war, it is genocide, because it is killing women and children,” da Silva said during an event in Rio de Janeiro.
On Monday, Israel declared da Silva "persona non grata" after he made similar statements.
This is the Brazilian leader's first reaction since the controversy sparked by his likening of the Israeli attack on Gaza to the Holocaust.
Da Silva has stuck to his position, repeatedly stressing the term "genocide."
He said, "This is genocide. There are thousands of dead children, and thousands of missing people. It is not the soldiers who are dying, but women and children in the hospital. If this is not genocide, then I do not know what genocide is?"
The Brazilian President summoned his country's ambassador to Israel for consultations, in response to Tel Aviv's rebuke of him against the backdrop of statements made by da Silva regarding the Israeli war on the besieged Palestinian Strip.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies