‘An Unwelcome Figure in Our Country’: Israel Slams Brazilian President’s Remarks

Jerusalem, 19 February, 2024 (TPS) -- In response to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent comments comparing the Gaza war to the Holocaust, Israel’s Foreign Minister summoned the South American country’s ambassador to a formal reprimand which took place at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Monday.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Brazilian Ambassador Frederico S. Duque Estrada Meyer toured the memorial and museum, after which Katz declared, “On behalf of myself and the citizens of the State of Israel, I declare the president an unwelcome figure in our country until he retracts his statements.”

Lula, while attending the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday, told reporters “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. 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.”

Lula then added, “It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”

The comparison outraged Israeli officials and the families of hostages currently held in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Lula’s comments “shameful.”

Among the victims of the October 7 attack were three Brazilian-Israeli nationals. Bruna Valeanu, 24, from Rio de Janeiro and Ranani Nidejelski, 23, from Porto Alegre and  were among the 364 killed at Nova Music Festival near Kibbutz Reim. Karla Stelzer Mendes, 42, from Carioca, was taken hostage at the rave and later confirmed dead.

Katz said he brought the ambassador to Yad Vashem because it “serves as a poignant testament to the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Hitler against the Jewish people, resulting in the destruction of six million lives, including those of my family members.”

During the tour, the display of “The Book of Names,” was showcased, a compilation containing the names of over four million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, representing a comprehensive database built from decades of testimonies.

“I conveyed to the ambassador my strong condemnation of the President of Brazil’s inappropriate comparison between Israel’s rightful war and Hitler’s genocidal acts against the Jews, deeming it a disgrace and a severe anti-Semitic attack,” Katz said.

During World War II, the Nazis and their allies systematically murdered six million Jews

At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.