STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was asked his ambassador to Tel Aviv to return to Brasilia for consultations. The move came after Israel declared Lula “persona non grata” over his comments about Gaza.
The president was quoted by Brazilian media over the weekend as likening Israel’s actions in Gaza to a time “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” referring to the Holocaust during the Second World War.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded by summoning the Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer for a protest – not to the ministry, but to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. There, Katz called Lula’s words “a serious antisemitic attack” and showed Meyer the names of his own relatives killed by the Nazis.
“We will not forget nor forgive,” Katz told Meyer, according to his post on X (formerly Twitter). “In my name and the name of the citizens of Israel – tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back.”
Lula has stood by his words, however, and ordered Meyer back to Brazil. The Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv will be run by a charge d’affaires, which is a downgrade in diplomatic relations.
The International Court of Justice asked Israel last month to refrain from actions that could be considered genocidal, following a complaint by South Africa under the Genocide Convention.
In Jakarta, an international issues analyst, Erlangga P said whatever spoke and did by the Brazilian’s president against Israel must be supported by an international communities. “I think Lula is right because Israel’s inferno action in Gaza has been making long time humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and Israel must be judged as genocide country perpretators,” said Erlangga further said Israel, United States, Germany, France and other countries which have been supporting Israel as “the global bastard community”.
