Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will not be welcome in Israel until he retracts his comments comparing the war against Hamas in Gaza to the Nazi genocide during World War II. World War.
"We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious anti-Semitic attack. In my name and in the name of the citizens of Israel,
tell President Lula that he is 'persona non grata'
in Israel until he removes it," said the Foreign Minister , Israel Katz, to the Brazilian ambassador, Frederico Meyer, according to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry collected by the Sputnik news agency.
Lula accused Israel on Sunday of committing "genocide" of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and compared its actions to Adolf Hitler's campaign to exterminate the Jews.
The statement provoked a strong response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Lula of trivializing the Holocaust, and anticipated the summons to Ambassador Meyer.
"What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,"
Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where he is attending a summit of the African Union (EU).
"What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has not happened at any other time in history. In fact, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews," he added.
The Brazilian leader's statement also had repercussions in Brazil, since the Bolsonaro extreme right announced that it will promote a political trial against Lula and incorporated the issue in the call for a march in defense of former president Jair Bolsonaro scheduled for next Sunday.
ISRAEL PALESTINE BRAZIL