Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has compared Israel's war against Hamas to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis' extermination of Jews in the Holocaust on Sunday, Brazilian media reported.
"What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment," said the president.
"In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews." The October 7 attack by Hamas, which killed over 1,200 people, has been reported as the "deadliest day for the Jews since the Holocaust," as described by US President Joe Biden days after the attack and also by numerous Israeli officials and Jewish social media users.
The president stated that the deaths in Gaza are a "massacre" and a "genocide," reports quoted him as saying.
Lula made these statements in an interview with journalists at a hotel he was staying at in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The president was previously in Cairo, where he met with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The Brazilian daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that the war in Gaza was the main topic of Lula's five-day trip abroad.
Lula had already criticized Israel for its "disproportionate response" after the Hamas attack and said that the UN Security Council "cannot do anything in the war between Israel and [Hamas in] the Gaza Strip. The only thing it can do is ask for peace through the press, but it seems to me that Israel has the primacy of not complying with any decision made by the leadership of the United Nations."
On Saturday, Lula had a bilateral meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who previously said the following day that Russia plans to host unity talks between all Palestinian factions in Moscow on the Monday after - which includes Hamas. Shtayyeh also said that "one should not continue focusing on October 7" as he denounced Hamas’s actions on that day.
Brazilian envoy called for reprimand as Lula's comments are criticized
Foreign Minister Israel Katz recalled the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for a reprimand following Lula's statements, saying, "The words of the Brazilian president are shameful and serious. No one will harm Israel's right to defend itself."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided with Katz to recall the Brazilian ambassador, saying, "This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself. Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line. Israel fights for its defense and securing its future until complete victory, and it does so while upholding international law.
"By comparing Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization, to the Holocaust, President da Silva has disgraced the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and demonized the Jewish state like the most virulent antisemite. He should be ashamed of himself. "
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, "Israeli soldiers are fighting a cruel terrorist organization which has as its stated goal the annihilation of the Jewish state, and advocates the suppression of other faiths and communities such as the LGBT community and brutally continues to hold 134 babies, women, and men hostage in the dungeons of Gaza. And yet, there are still leaders who atrociously accuse the nation-state of the Jewish people of the evil of Hitler’s deeds.
"I utterly condemn such accusations and the immoral distortion of history," he continued. "And call on all world leaders to join me in condemning such actions unequivocally."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, "Accusing Israel of perpetrating a Holocaust is outrageous and abhorrent. Brazil has stood with Israel for years." Gallant later accused President Lula of supporting Hamas - describing them as "a genocidal terrorist organization." The minister also said that Lula "brings great shame to his people and violates the values of the free world."
National Unity MK Gideon Sa'ar posted on X saying that "Argentinian President Javier Milei will be remembered as a true man and a true friend to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Brazil's President Lula will be remembered as someone who was associated with evil and lies and was an active participant in an antisemitic blood plot against Israel."
The Brazilian Israelite Confederation, the central organization of the Brazilian Jewish community, issued a statement on Lula's comments, saying his allusion is a "perverse distortion of reality” that “offends the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants,” CNN Brasil quoted the organization as saying.
The organization also said that "The Nazis exterminated 6 million defenseless Jews in Europe just for being Jews. Israel is now defending itself against a terrorist group that invaded the country, killed more than a thousand people, carried out mass rapes, burned people alive, and defends its founding charter, which includes the elimination of the Jewish state.”
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center's Chairman, Danny Dayan, said that "Lula's shameful words are are "an outrageous combination of hatred and ignorance. According to the IHRA working definition of antisemitism (an organization in which Brazil itself is looking forward to becoming a member), this is a clear antisemitic statement. A comparison of a country fighting a terrorist organization, which massacred over 1,200 of its citizens indiscriminately, to the actions of the Nazis who exterminated 6 million Jews deserves all condemnation. It is sad that the leader of a country descends to such a low point of extreme Holocaust distortion."