Brazil-Israel Row Over Gaza-Holocaust Comparison Escalates

Facts

• Brazil's foreign ministry confirmed on Monday that its ambassador to Israel has been recalled for talks and that the Israeli ambassador to Brazil would be summoned amid a diplomatic row over Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's comparison between the war in Gaza and the Holocaust.¹
• This comes as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer for a reprimand during an atypical meeting and tour at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, declaring Lula 'persona non grata' until he withdraws his comments.²
• However, sources familiar with internal discussions told Reuters that Lula has ordered that there will be no retraction and any answers will be provided through diplomatic channels.³
• The Brazilian president claimed at the 37th African Union summit on Sunday that the Holocaust was the only parallel in history to what is happening in the Gaza Strip with Palestinians, a description that Hamas praised as an 'accurate description.'⁴
• Despite condemning the Hamas Oct. 7 attack, Lula has criticized the Israeli counterassault — vowing to increase contributions for the embattled Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.⁵
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that comparing Israel to the Nazi regime amounts to 'Holocaust trivialisation,' with the main Jewish organization in Brazil arguing that Lula has offended the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants.⁶

Sources: ¹Middle East Monitor, ²The Times of Israel, ³Reuters, ⁴Middle East Eye, ⁵Al Jazeera and ⁶BBC News.

Narratives

• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. In the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust, the world has pledged to never again allow a similar tragedy to be repeated. Yet, no one is doing anything to protect Gazans as they are being brutally killed in genocidal proportions by the Israeli occupation in its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip. Hopefully, the words of Lula will inspire the international community to halt this atrocity.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Guardian. While one may argue that Israel has been somewhat harsh in its war against the genocidal Hamas, comparing its actions to that of Nazis is nothing but an outrageous and bad-faith attempt to appropriate the Holocaust and trample on the traumatic history of the Jewish community. If Israel intended to exterminate Gaza's entire population as claimed, it wouldn't allow — let alone warn — the civilian population to stay out of the way.

Predictions