Al Bilad newspaper Brazil’s president insists on accusing Israel of committing “genocide” – 2024-02-25 00:29:00

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted on Friday accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza, after he recently sparked a diplomatic crisis by comparing the Israeli attack against Hamas in the Palestinian Strip to the “Jewish Holocaust.”

“What the State of Israel is doing is not a war, it is a genocide, because it is killing women and children,” Lula said during an event in Rio de Janeiro.

This is the Brazilian leader’s first reaction since the controversy sparked by his likening of the Israeli attack on Gaza to the Holocaust.

Lula stuck to his position, repeatedly stressing the term “genocide.”

Lula stressed, “This is genocide. There are thousands of dead children, and thousands of missing people. It is not soldiers who are dying, but women and children in the hospital. If this is not genocide, then I do not know what genocide is.”

Diplomatic crisis

Last Monday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil after declaring President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “persona non grata” in Israel following his statements that angered the Hebrew state.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “In view of the seriousness of the Israeli government’s statements this morning, Minister Mauro Vieira summoned the Israeli ambassador, Daniel Sonshine,” in Rio de Janeiro.

She added, “He also summoned for consultation the Brazilian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Federico Mayer, who will leave for Brazil on Tuesday.”

Earlier last Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz considered the Brazilian president persona non grata after his statements in which he compared the war in Gaza to the “Holocaust.”

Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Lula’s statements as “shameful and dangerous” and as “a disdain for the Holocaust and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself,” considering that Lula had “crossed the red line.”