Tel Aviv condemns ‘shameful’ Nazi comparison by Brazil’s Lula

ISRAEL yesterday accused Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, of “trivialising” the Holocaust and causing offence to the Jewish people after he likened the Israeli war against Hamas militants in Gaza to the Nazi genocide during the Second World War.

Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital where he is attending an African Union summit, that what was happening in 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,” the veteran Leftist president added.

“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history,” he said, then added: “Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”

In response, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, called his 78-year-old counterpart’s comments “shameful and grave” and said the Israeli government had called in Brazil’s ambassador to register its protest over the remarks.

Lula, a prominent voice for the global south whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20 group of leading world economies, has condemned Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks on southern Israel as a “terrorist” act.

However, he has since grown critical of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign.

Mr Netanyahu, 74, called Lula’s remarks “Holocaust trivialisation and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself ”.

He said: “The comparison between Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler is crossing a red line.

“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.”

Lula criticised Western countries’ recent decisions to halt aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused some of its employees of being directly involved in the Oct 7 attacks in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed.

The Hamas controlled health ministry in Gaza claims 30,000 Palestinians have died in Israel’s military response.