Brazil's first lady calls Israeli gov’t ‘genocidal,’ denies antisemitism by Lula

Brazil

Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula Silva on Monday called the Israeli government genocidal and denied assertions that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had engaged in antisemitism by comparing Israel’s war against Hamas to the Holocaust.

“The speech referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people,” the First Lady wrote on social media.

She said that journalists refused to publish graphic images of dead Palestinian children and were hiding a genocide in Gaza.

“I am proud of my husband who, since the beginning of this conflict in the Gaza Strip, has defended peace and especially the right to life of women and children, who are the majority of victims,” said First Lady Lula. “I am sure that if President Lula had experienced the Second World War, he would have defended the right to life of the Jews in the same way.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gives a speech during his visit to the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt February 15, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Abdel-Ghany/File Photo)

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gives a speech during his visit to the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt February 15, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Abdel-Ghany/File Photo)

The first lady called for the world to condemn the murder of Gazan children.

Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told Reuters at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday that Israel’s diplomatic response to President Lula’s remarks was an attempt to create a smokescreen to cover up its actions in Gaza.

‘Shameful page in the history of Israel’s diplomacy’

“For a foreign ministry to address a head of state from a friendly country in this way is unusual and revolting,” said Vieira. “It is a shameful page in the history of Israel’s diplomacy.”

Following a public reprimand at Yad Vashem on Monday, President Lula recalled his ambassador to Israel for consultations, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published the same day.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz publicly told Ambassador Frederico Meyer before the Holocaust memorial and museum’s Book of Names that Lula engaged in a “serious antisemitic attack” for comparing “Israel’s just war against Hamas — that murdered and slaughtered Jews — to Hitler and the Nazi” extermination of six million Jews during World War II.

“We will not forgive, and we will not forget,” said Katz. “In my name and in the name of the citizens of Israel, inform President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words.”

Brazil said that it had no intention of retracting President Lula’s statements, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment,”  President Lula said at the African Union Summit on Sunday. “In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”