Brazilian President Lula caused a diplomatic storm by accusing Israel on Sunday of committing a “genocide” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and drawing a comparison with the Holocaust.
Comments which angered Tel Aviv, while Lula was declared “persona non grata” in Israel.
Since then, the diplomatic crisis has worsened and risks spilling over into the meeting of G20 foreign ministers which opened this Wednesday in Brasilia.
What happened ?
On the sidelines of an African Union summit which he attended on Sunday in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), the Brazilian president estimated that the conflict in Gaza “is a war between a highly prepared army and women and children ".
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a genocide,” Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the press.
Before adding: “What is happening has not happened at any other time in history.
In fact, this has already happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.
»
The parallel between the Israeli offensive and the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis provoked the ire of the Israeli Prime Minister.
“These comments are shameful and serious,” responded Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon.
He immediately announced that the Brazilian ambassador to Israel would be summoned “to strongly lecture him”.
Brazil took the same measure with regard to the Israeli ambassador.
VIDEO.
Netanyahu calls Lula comparisons “shameful”
Tensions rose a notch on Monday when Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lula's remarks "a serious anti-Semitic attack against the Jewish people and the State of Israel," and declared the Brazilian leader “persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and withdraws his remarks”.
זימנתי הבוקר את שגריר ברזיל בישראל ליד ושם, המקום שמעיד יותר מכל על מה שעשו הנאצים והיטלר ליהודים, בהם בני משפחתי.
@LulaOficial @LulaOficial @LulaOficial @LulaOficial @LulaOficial @LulaOficial @LulaOficial ן מעשיהם של היטלר והנאצים, שהשמידו 6 מיליון יהודים, היא התקפה אנטישמית חמורה שמחללת את… pic.twitter.com/QErDw4tElb
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) February 19, 2024
His Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, accused him of “lies”.
For him, “the Israeli people do not deserve this dishonesty, which does not live up to the history of struggle and courage of the Jewish people.”
Colombia, Bolivia, United States… These countries that get involved
Lula's words provoked reactions beyond the two protagonist states.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed his “full solidarity” with his Brazilian counterpart on Tuesday, also accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“Lula only told the truth.
Either the truth is defended, or barbarism will destroy us,” he declared on X. His Bolivian counterpart Luis Arce for his part congratulated him “for telling the truth about the genocide committed against the valiant Palestinian people.” .
Express my integral solidarity with President Lula of Brazil.
In Gaza there is a genocide and it is happening among thousands of children, women and former civilians.
Lula solo ha dicho la verdad and la verdad se defiende o la barbarie nos annihilará.
All the region must be united so that…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) February 20, 2024
The United States, which usually supports Brazil diplomatically, has for its part rejected accusations of “genocide”.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, traveling to Brasilia this Wednesday, spoke for less than 45 minutes with Lula.
He expressed American “disagreement,” according to a State Department official.
What does this diplomatic crisis reveal?
Lula's comments "are not surprising", analyzes Christophe Ventura, research director at Iris, specialist in Latin America.
The Brazilian leader condemned the October 7 Hamas attack as a "terrorist" act, but has since been very critical of Israel's military offensive.
His statements on Sunday, however, are the most virulent he has made on the conflict.
“In an excessive and clumsy way, Lula expresses what is being thought in many countries but especially in Latin America”, according to the researcher, before specifying: “That is to say the unsustainable nature of what is in happening in Gaza and the condemnation of the impunity that Netanyahu's government enjoys from Western powers.
» The fact that it is supported by neighboring countries does not surprise Christophe Ventura either, because “Latin Americans do not have the same reading as Europeans on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they see it first like a colonial conflict, which sends them back to their own history.”
Also read Gaza: Israel accused of “genocide” by South Africa, what consequences?
For the researcher, “Lula sort of put his foot in the hole.
His words created, intentionally or not, a shock of communication and a liberation of the words of many public opinions who no longer support the fate that the Gazans have suffered since the Hamas massacres.
Between these declarations and the historic proceedings initiated a few days ago by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for alleged violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, "there is a form of emancipation of the countries of the South in relation to the Western agenda”.
How far can she go?
While the foreign ministers of the G20 countries meet on Wednesday and Thursday in Brazil, which currently holds the presidency of this group, the ambitions of the Brazilian president to pose as a mediator of global crises seem compromised.
“If we adopt a European reading, we can imagine that Lula disqualifies himself as a leader who claims to play a role of appeasement in world conflicts,” predicts Christophe Ventura.
Even if it is unlikely that the Brazilian president will apologize, the researcher thinks, "he will perhaps try to find formulas or actions to relieve the pressure and smooth things over."