Israel's foreign minister said he would summon the Brazilian ambassador to rebuke him over comments that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “disgraceful.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and compared its war on Gaza to Adolf Hitler's campaign to exterminate the Jewish people.
“What is happening in Gaza is not a war, it is a genocide,” Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit on Sunday.
“It is not a war of soldiers against soldiers. “It is a war between a well-prepared army and women and children,” the Brazilian president added.
“What is happening to the Palestinian people in Gaza has never happened at any other time in history.” In fact, it happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Under Hitler's leadership, the Nazis systematically killed six million Jews during World War II.
Lula said Israel's war on Gaza was a “genocide.” [Ricardo Stuckert/Brazilian Presidency via AFP]Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he would summon the Brazilian ambassador to rebuke him over the comments.
“No one will jeopardize Israel’s right to self-defense,” Katz said on X, adding that the envoy would be summoned on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the comments “disgraceful and serious.”
“This is a trivialization of the Holocaust and an attempt to attack the Jewish people and Israel’s right to self-defense.” “To draw comparisons between Israel and the Nazis and Hitler is to cross a red line,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Lula, 78, had condemned the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 as a “terrorist” act on the day it happened.
However, he has since become vocally critical of Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza.
At least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, according to a list of official Israeli figures obtained by Al Jazeera.
According to Israeli authorities, Hamas members also captured about 250 people, 130 of whom are still in Gaza, including 30 who are presumed dead.
According to the Palestinian authorities, at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israel's retaliatory attack on Gaza.
Lula criticized recent decisions by Western countries to cut off aid to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after Israel accused some of its staff of being involved in the Hamas-led attack.
Lula, who met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday, said Brazil would increase its own contribution to the agency and called on other countries to do the same.
“When I see the rich world announce that it is ending its contributions to humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, I can only imagine how great the political consciousness of these people is and how great the spirit of solidarity is in their hearts.” € said Lula.
“We have to stop being small when we need to be big.”
He reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestine “finally recognized as a full and sovereign state.”