Brazil's president angers Israel after comparing Gaza war to Holocaust
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday drew the ire of Israeli authorities after comparing Israel's actions in the war against Hamas to the Holocaust, in which Nazis murdered six million Jews in a systematic roundup of Europe during World War II.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian people has no parallel at other historical moments,” he said. Lula told reporters at the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But, he added, “it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
In the summit's opening speech on Saturday, he said it was necessary to condemn both Hamas's attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel's “disproportionate response.” Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 28,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200 people.
Mr. Lula's statement angered Israeli officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said this in a statement statement on social media in Hebrew that the comments were “shameful and egregious.” He said Brazil's ambassador will be called to his office on Monday for a “reprimand,” adding that “no one will harm Israel's right to defend itself.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel echoed these sentiments in his own social media post. Mr. Netanyahu accused the Brazilian president of “trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself” and said that “comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler crosses a red line .”
Mr. Netanyahu added in a separate statement that Mr. Lula “disgraced the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state as the most virulent anti-Semite.”
Hamas, in a statement on social media, welcomed the Brazilian president's comments and appreciated the comparison between the Holocaust and the current fighting in Gaza.
Brazil's president initially condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack but has since criticized Israel's response. In November, welcoming a flight carrying about 30 people who had left Gaza via Egypt with the help of the Brazilian government, he condemned the impact of the war on civilians, saying: “I have never seen such brutal, inhumane violence against innocent citizens. people.”