Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has repeatedly criticized Israel over its military operations in Gaza.
Israel condemned Brazil's president, who accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and compared the act to the Holocaust.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Israel's military operations were carried out among “highly prepared troops and women and children.”
Israel's foreign minister described Lula's comments as anti-Semitic and said he was “persona non grata” in the country until he retracted his comments.
Brazil's main Jewish organizations also criticized Lula's comments.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people is unlike any other historical moment,” Lula said at the African Union summit in Ethiopia. “That was certainly present when he decided to kill him.”
“This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It is a war between highly prepared troops and women and children.”
The veteran left-wing politician blamed Hamas, whose militants killed at least 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in a surprise attack on Israel on October 7.
But since then, he has been a vocal critic of Israel's retaliatory military operations, with the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip saying it has killed more than 28,800 people, mainly women and children. ing.
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said, “We will neither forget nor allow ourselves to be forgotten.''
“This is a serious anti-Semitic attack. In my name and in the name of the Israeli people, please tell President Lula that he is a man of character for Israel until we take it back.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula's comments amounted to “an attempt to trivialize the Holocaust and undermine the right of Jews and Israel to self-defense.”
“Comparing Israel to the Nazis and Hitler's Holocaust crosses a line that should not be crossed,” he said in a statement.
Six million Jews were systematically murdered by Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s.
Israel summoned the Brazilian ambassador for talks on Monday.
Brazil's main Jewish organization, the Brazilian Federation of Israelis, said Lula's comments were a “distortion of reality” and “damaged the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants.”
Lula supported South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.
ICJ judges ruled in January that South Africa's case against Israel could proceed.
The court directed Israel to prevent its military from committing acts deemed genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to enable humanitarian aid to Gaza residents.
However, the court stopped short of requiring Israel to immediately halt military operations in Gaza.
Brazil and South Africa are members of the Brics group, an alliance of some of the world's most important developing countries brought together to oppose wealthy Western countries.
The World Health Organization has announced that Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip has ceased functioning following an Israeli attack. The IDF said its operation was “precise and limited” and accused Hamas of “cynically using hospitals for terrorism.”
Meanwhile, efforts are underway in Cairo to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but Qatari mediators said recent progress was “not very encouraging”.
