South American allies voice ‘solidarity’ with Brazil after Israel lambasts Lula for evaluating conflict on Gaza with Holocaust.
Colombia and Bolivia are backing Brazil as its diplomatic row with Israel escalated after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, evaluating its actions with the Holocaust.
Gustavo Petro and Luis Arce, the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia respectively, each expressed “solidarity” with Lula on Tuesday, after he was slammed by Israel for calling its war on Gaza a “genocide” towards Palestinians and compared it with Adolf Hitler’s marketing campaign to exterminate the Jewish folks throughout the Holocaust.
“In Gaza there’s a genocide and 1000’s of kids, girls and aged civilians are cowardly murdered,” Petro stated on X. “Lula has solely spoken the reality and the reality is defended or barbarism will annihilate us. Your complete area should unite to instantly finish the violence in Palestine.”
Expreso mi solidaridad integral al presidente Lula del Brasil. En Gaza hay un genocidio y se asesina cobardemente a far de niños, mujeres y ancianos civiles.
Lula solo ha dicho la verdad y la verdad se defiende o la barbarie nos aniquilará.Toda la región debe unirse para que…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) February 20, 2024
Arce additionally took to social media to hyperlink arms with Lula. “Historical past is not going to forgive those that are detached to this barbarity,” he wrote. The Brazilian president, he stated, had informed the reality in regards to the genocide being dedicated towards the “courageous Palestinian folks”.
Desde el Estado Plurinacional de #Bolivia expresamos toda nuestra solidaridad y apoyo al hermano presidente de #Brasil, @LulaOficial, declarado “persona no grata” en #Israel por decir la verdad sobre el genocidio que se comete contra el valiente pueblo palestino. La historia no… pic.twitter.com/VAERz9dwRl
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) February 20, 2024
The row blew up on Sunday, tensions deepening when Israeli Overseas Minister Israel Katz labelled Lula’s feedback “promiscuous, delusional”, declaring him “persona non grata” in Israel. “It’s not too late to study historical past and apologize,” he wrote on X.
In response, Brazilian Overseas Minister Mauro Vieira described Katz’s feedback as “outrageous” and “unacceptable of their nature and mendacity of their content material”.
“For a overseas ministry to deal with a head of state from a pleasant nation on this method is uncommon and revolting,” he informed reporters on the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The episode, he stated on Tuesday, was “a shameful web page within the historical past of Israel’s diplomacy”.
Diplomatic retaliation
Within the aftermath of Lula’s feedback, Katz summoned Brazil’s ambassador Frederico Meyer for a gathering on Monday on the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem.
In a tit-for-tat transfer, the Brazilian Ministry of Overseas Affairs then summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonshinem, and recalled Meyer from Tel Aviv for consultations.
Veteran leftist Lula, 78, is a distinguished voice for the International South and his nation holds the rotating presidency of the G20.
Whereas he had initially described the Hamas-led assault on October 7 as a “terrorist” act, he has since grown vocally crucial of Israel’s response.
His feedback got here as Brazil prepares to host a G20 overseas ministers’ assembly on Wednesday and Thursday, with prime diplomats together with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov gathering in Rio de Janeiro.
