“Genocide” in Gaza: 5 minutes to understand the diplomatic crisis between Israel and Brazil Lula

Brazilian President Lula sparked a diplomatic storm by accusing Israel on Sunday of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and drawing comparisons to the Holocaust. Comments that outraged Tel Aviv and led to Lulu being declared “persona non grata” in Israel. Since then, the diplomatic crisis has worsened and risks spilling over into the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting that opened this Wednesday in Brasilia.

What’s happened ?

On the sidelines of the African Union summit he attended on Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Brazilian president assessed that the conflict in Gaza “is a war between a highly trained army and women and children.” “What is happening in the Gaza Strip is genocide,” Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the press. Before adding: “What is happening has never happened in history. In fact, this has already happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. »

The parallel between the Israeli offensive and the Nazi extermination of Jews has angered Israel’s prime minister. “These comments are shameful and serious,” Benjamin responded to Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon. He immediately announced that the Brazilian ambassador to Israel would be summoned “to give him stern lectures.” Brazil took the same measure against the Israeli ambassador.

Tensions rose Monday when Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lula’s remarks “a serious anti-Semitic attack against the Jewish people and the State of Israel” and declared the Brazilian leader “persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and revokes his powers.” comments.”

His Brazilian colleague Mauro Vieira accused him of “lying.” In his opinion, “the Israeli people do not deserve this dishonesty, which does not correspond to the history of struggle and courage of the Jewish people.”

Colombia, Bolivia, USA… These are the countries that are participating

Lula’s words sparked reactions beyond the two main characters. Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday expressed “full solidarity” with his Brazilian counterpart, also accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. “Lula only told the truth. Either the truth will be defended or barbarity will destroy us,” he said on X. His Bolivian colleague Luis Arce, for his part, congratulated him “for telling the truth about the genocide committed against the valiant Palestinian people.”

The United States, which usually supports Brazil diplomatically, has rejected accusations of “genocide.” The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who traveled to Brasilia this Wednesday, spoke with Lula for less than 45 minutes. There was a “French exchange” and he expressed American “disagreement,” a State Department spokesman told AFP.

What does this diplomatic crisis show?

Lula’s comments are “not surprising,” analyzes Christophe Ventura, Iris’ research director and Latin America specialist. The Brazilian leader condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack as a “terrorist” attack but has since sharply criticized Israel’s military offensive. But his statements on Sunday are the most virulent he has made on the conflict.

“Lula’s excessive and clumsy expression expresses what many countries think, but especially in Latin America,” the researcher believes, before clarifying: “That is, the unsustainable nature of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the condemnation of the impunity with which the Netanyahu government used by Western powers. “The fact that he is supported by neighboring countries does not surprise Cristophe Ventura either, since “Latin Americans do not have the same view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Europeans, they see it primarily as a colonial conflict that sends them back to their own history.”

According to the researcher, “Lula seemed to have stuck his foot in a hole. His words, intentionally or not, sent shockwaves through the community and freed the words of many public voices that no longer supported the fate that Gazans suffered in the wake of the Hamas massacres. Between these statements and the historic proceedings initiated a few days ago by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention, “there is a kind of emancipation of the South in relation to the Western agenda.”

How far can she go?

As G20 foreign ministers meet Wednesday and Thursday in Brazil, which currently holds the group’s presidency, the Brazilian president’s ambitions to mediate global crises appear compromised. “If we accept the European reading, we can imagine Lula disqualifying himself as a leader who claims to play a pacifying role in world conflicts,” predicts Christophe Ventura.

Even if the Brazilian president is unlikely to apologize, the researcher said, “he may try to find formulas or actions to ease the pressure and smooth out the situation.”