Brazil:
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel Sunday of committing “genocide” in opposition to Palestinian civilians within the Gaza Strip and in contrast its actions to Adolf Hitler’s marketing campaign to exterminate Jews.
In response, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as the 78-year-old’s feedback “shameful and grave” and mentioned his authorities had referred to as in Brazil’s ambassador in protest.
However his feedback drew reward from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which described the remarks as “an accurate description” of what folks have been going through within the Gaza Strip that it controls.
Lula instructed reporters in Addis Ababa, the place he was attending an African Union summit, that what was taking place within the Gaza Strip “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide”.
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” added the veteran leftist.
“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, a distinguished voice for the worldwide south whose nation at the moment holds the rotating presidency of the G20, beforehand condemned Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 assault on Israel as a “terrorist” act.
However he has since grown vocally important of Israel’s retaliatory army marketing campaign.
Netanyahu referred to as Lula’s remarks “Holocaust trivialisation and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself”.
“The comparison between Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler is crossing a red line,” he mentioned in a press release.
“Israel is fighting to defend itself and ensure its future until total victory and it is doing that while upholding international law.”
“I have decided with Foreign Minister (Israel) Katz to summon the Brazilian ambassador in Israel for an immediate reproach.”
Katz wrote on the X social media platform that the assembly would happen on Monday.
UNRWA contribution
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hit out at “leaders who atrociously accuse the nation state of the Jewish people of the evil of Hitler’s deeds”, with out naming his Brazilian counterpart.
To take action was an “immoral distortion of history”, he added.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the meantime referred to as Lula’s feedback “outrageous and abhorrent”. “Brazil has stood with Israel for years,” he wrote on X.
“President Lula supports a genocidal terrorist organisation — Hamas, and in doing so brings great shame to his people, and violates the values of the free world.”
The October 7 assault resulted within the deaths of about 1,160 folks in Israel, principally civilians, in accordance with an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants additionally took about 250 folks hostage, 130 of whom are nonetheless in Gaza, together with 30 who’re presumed lifeless, in accordance with Israeli figures.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed a minimum of 28,858 folks, principally ladies and kids, in accordance with the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry.
Lula criticised Western nations’ current selections to halt help to the UN company for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused a few of its staff of involvement within the October 7 assault.
Lula, who met with Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, has mentioned Brazil will enhance its personal contribution to the company, and urged different nations to do the identical.
“When I see the rich world announce that it’s halting its contributions to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, I just imagine how big these people’s political awareness is and how big the spirit of solidarity in their hearts is,” Lula mentioned.
“We need to stop being small when we need to be big.”
He reiterated his name for a two-state answer to the battle, with Palestine “definitively recognised as a full and sovereign state.”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)