TEL AVIV, February 19. /TASS/. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared persona non grata in the Jewish state until he apologizes and refuses to compare Israel with Nazi Germany.
"This morning, I summoned the Brazilian Ambassador to Israel to [the Holocaust Memorial Center] Yad Vashem, the place that most testifies to what the Nazis and Hitler did to Jews, including members of my family. We will not forgive and we will not forget - on my behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Israel, I informed President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words," Katz wrote on the social network X. "The comparison made by the Brazilian president between Israel's just war against Hamas and the actions of Hitler and the Nazis, who exterminated 6 million Jews, is a serious anti-Semitic attack, desecrating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust," the Israeli foreign minister added.
On February 18, the Brazilian president said that the mass killings of civilians as a result of the bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israel could be compared in nature to Hitler's crimes against Jews.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the same day in which he pointed out that "the statements of the Brazilian president are shameful and serious" and that "comparing Israel's actions with the Holocaust and Hitler means crossing a red line." The head of the Cabinet of Ministers noted at the same time that, together with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, he decided to "immediately summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for a strict presentation."
Tensions flared up in the Middle East after the infiltration of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, accompanied by the killing of residents of border settlements and the taking over 240 hostages, including children, women and the elderly. The radicals described their attack as a response to the actions of the Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a total blockade of Gaza and began to conduct strikes on the sector as well as certain areas of Lebanon and Syria, after which it launched a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank of the Jordan River.