South American allies voice ‘solidarity’ with Brazil after Israel lambasts Lula for evaluating warfare on Gaza with Holocaust.
Colombia and Bolivia are backing Brazil as its diplomatic row with Israel escalated after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, evaluating its actions with the Holocaust.
Gustavo Petro and Luis Arce, the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia respectively, each expressed “solidarity” with Lula on Tuesday, after he was slammed by Israel for calling its warfare on Gaza a “genocide” towards Palestinians and in contrast it with Adolf Hitler’s marketing campaign to exterminate the Jewish folks through the Holocaust.
“In Gaza there is a genocide and thousands of children, women and elderly civilians are cowardly murdered,” Petro mentioned on X. “Lula has only spoken the truth and the truth is defended or barbarism will annihilate us. The entire region must unite to immediately end the violence in Palestine.”
Expreso mi solidaridad integral al presidente Lula del Brasil. En Gaza hay un genocidio y se asesina cobardemente a much de niños, mujeres y ancianos civiles.
Lula solo ha dicho la verdad y la verdad se defiende o la barbarie nos aniquilará.Toda la región debe unirse para que…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) February 20, 2024
Arce additionally took to social media to hyperlink arms with Lula. “History will not forgive those who are indifferent to this barbarity,” he wrote. The Brazilian president, he mentioned, had instructed the reality concerning the genocide being dedicated towards the “brave Palestinian people”.
Desde el Estado Plurinacional de #Bolivia expresamos toda nuestra solidaridad y apoyo al hermano presidente de #Brasil, @LulaOficial, declarado “persona no grata” en #Israel por decir la verdad sobre el genocidio que se comete contra el valiente pueblo palestino. La historia no… pic.twitter.com/VAERz9dwRl
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) February 20, 2024
The row blew up on Sunday, tensions deepening when Israeli Overseas Minister Israel Katz labelled Lula’s feedback “promiscuous, delusional”, declaring him “persona non grata” in Israel. “It’s not too late to learn history and apologize,” he wrote on X.
In response, Brazilian Overseas Minister Mauro Vieira described Katz’s feedback as “outrageous” and “unacceptable in their nature and lying in their content”.
“For a foreign ministry to address a head of state from a friendly country in this way is unusual and revolting,” he instructed reporters on the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The episode, he mentioned on Tuesday, was “a shameful page in the history of Israel’s diplomacy”.
Diplomatic retaliation
Within the aftermath of Lula’s feedback, Katz summoned Brazil’s ambassador Frederico Meyer for a gathering on Monday on the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem.
In a tit-for-tat transfer, the Brazilian Ministry of Overseas Affairs then summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonshinem, and recalled Meyer from Tel Aviv for consultations.
Veteran leftist Lula, 78, is a outstanding voice for the International South and his nation holds the rotating presidency of the G20.
Whereas he had initially described the Hamas-led assault on October 7 as a “terrorist” act, he has since grown vocally crucial of Israel’s response.
His feedback got here as Brazil prepares to host a G20 overseas ministers’ assembly on Wednesday and Thursday, with high diplomats together with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov gathering in Rio de Janeiro.