Brazil’s central Jewish organization has criticized President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for “antisemitic” comments about Israel during a speech in Moscow on Saturday.
Lula told reporters that Israel is “attacking women and children under the pretext of killing terrorists.” He said there have been cases where hospitals containing just women and children were bombed, with no terrorists present.
“It’s a genocide,” he said.
In a statement on Sunday, the president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, Claudio Lottenberg, said, “Accusing Jews of killing children is one of the oldest and most deplorable forms of antisemitism.”
“It is regrettable and disturbing that the president of our country continues to promote this antisemitic libel throughout the world.
“Brazil is a country where the Jewish community lives in peace and security, but President Lula, with his antisemitic statements, seems to want to create problems for our community by promoting antisemitism among his supporters, in an irresponsible and destructive attitude.”
Lottenberg added, “President Lula’s statements about the conflict were missing the truth: Hamas started this terrible war and is hiding behind the civilian population and Israeli hostages to promote its genocidal vision of exterminating Israel and the Jews.”
In his speech, Lula also stated that the UN Security Council needs to be strengthened: “In 1948, [it] had the strength to create the State of Israel, but now doesn’t even have the strength to maintain peace on the ground where Palestinians live.”
Lula's February comments
He continued by saying that Brazil wants to become a permanent member of the council.
In February 2024, Lula compared Israel’s war against Hamas to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis’ extermination of Jews in the Holocaust.
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment... In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula said during a conversation with reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The comments led to the Brazilian being banned from entering Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula’s words were “shameful and grave” and amounted to “Holocaust trivialization and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself.”