Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz declared on Monday that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is considered ‘persona non grata’ in Israel following his remarks comparing the conflict in Gaza to the Holocaust, as reported by the Times of Israel.
Katz, who invited the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, Frederico Mayer, to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, stated, “I informed the Brazilian ambassador that President Lula is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his statements.”
President Lula had stated on Sunday that Israel is committing “genocide” against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, likening the situation to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
Speaking to journalists in Addis Ababa at an African Union summit, Lula remarked, “What’s happening in Gaza is not a war, it’s genocide,” adding, “This has not happened at any other stage in history. In fact, it has already happened when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Katz criticized the Brazilian President’s statements as “shameful and dangerous… No one will infringe upon Israel’s right to defend itself. I have ordered my office staff to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand tomorrow,” according to his statements reported by the Times of Israel.
The Israeli minister added on Monday, “He desecrates the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust. We will neither forgive nor forget, on behalf of myself and the citizens of Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the statements on Sunday as “shameful and dangerous,” accusing them of trivializing the Holocaust and attempting to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to self-defense, considering Lula to have “crossed a red line.”
On October 7, Hamas militants launched an attack on southern Israel, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, according to a tally conducted by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel initiated a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, leading to 29,092 deaths to date, the vast majority being women and minors, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas.
Israel claims that 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, including 30 who were killed out of a total of 250 people abducted on October 7.
