In a bold statement made during the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused Israel of perpetrating "genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, drawing a parallel to Adolf Hitler's Holocaust.
Lula emphasised the uneven nature of the conflict, describing it as an assault by a "highly prepared army" on Palestinian "women and children," rather than a battle between soldiers. Israeli officials swiftly reacted, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz announcing plans to summon Brazil's ambassador for a reprimand and claiming Israel's right to “self-defense”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also vehemently criticised Lula's comparison as "disgraceful and grave," condemning it as a “trivialization of the Holocaust” and an “unjust attack on the Jewish state's legitimacy”.
