The diplomatic crisis between Israel and Brazil could spread to South America. On Tuesday, February 20, Colombian President Gustavo Petro supported his Brazilian counterpart Lula, who was declared persona non grata by Israel after comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.
“I express my full solidarity with the President of Brazil” Mr. Petro explained on the X platform: whose country borders Brasilia. “There is a genocide in Gaza. Thousands of children, women and old people are cowardly murdered. Lula only told the truth. “Either the truth will be defended or barbarism will destroy us,” added the Colombian leader, who called on “the entire region” to unite “to immediately end the violence in Palestine.”
This support comes as relations between Brazil and Israel continue to deteriorate daily after President Lula accused the Jewish state on Sunday of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and compared the Israeli offensive to annihilation the Jews had been dragged by the Nazis.
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” Lie “
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned “a serious anti-Semitic attack against the Jewish people and the State of Israel.” On Tuesday, Mr. Katz posted: on the X platform, a new message to Lula: “Millions of Jews around the world are waiting for you to ask for forgiveness. How dare you compare Israel to Hitler? ” ” A pity. Your comparison is immoral, delusional. “A disgrace to Brazil and a spit in the face of Brazilian Jews,” he added. “It is not too late to learn the story and apologize.” In the meantime, you remain persona non grata in Israel! », concludes the message.
The head of Brazilian diplomacy, Mauro Vieira, responded to these comments. The Israeli minister’s statements “yesterday [lundi] and today [mardi] are unacceptable in form and incorrect in content,” the Brazilian foreign minister told the press in Rio de Janeiro, where the meeting of G20 diplomatic chiefs begins on Wednesday. “The fact that a chancellor's office addresses the head of state of a friendly country, President Lula, in this way is unusual and repugnant. “The fact that a Chancellery systematically resorts to distorted explanations and lies is shocking and serious,” he emphasized.
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On Monday, Israel Katz summoned Brazil's ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to Israel's National Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem to rebuke him. In response, the Israeli ambassador was summoned to Brasilia by the government, and Brazil eventually recalled its ambassador to the country for consultations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Lula's comments “trivialized the Holocaust” and “crossed a red line.”
In this tense climate, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will meet Lula in Brasilia on Wednesday. As the US secretary of state was en route to Brazil, where he arrived on Tuesday evening, his spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States, Israel's ally, “obviously disagrees” with Lula's words, adding that “we don't do that there believe.” [ait] a genocide in Gaza.