Brazil president recalls ambassador in Israel for talks

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has recalled his ambassador to Israel for consultations, according to a column in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published on Monday.

Katz publicly told Ambassador Frederico Meyer that Lula engaged in a “serious antisemitic attack” for comparing “Israel’s just war against Hamas -- that murdered and slaughtered Jews -- to Hitler and the Nazi" extermination of six million Jews during World War II."

"We will not forgive, and we will not forget," said Katz. "In my name and in the name of the citizens of Israel, inform President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words."

The Foreign Minister said the comments were not worthy of the deep relationship between Israel and Brazil.

The Brazilian ambassador to Israel was reprimanded by Foreign Minister Israel Katz at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Monday, in response to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s comparisons between Israel’s war against Hamas and the Holocaust.

Katz demanded that Lula retract and apologize for what he said was a “serious antisemitic attack” for comparing “Israel’s just operations against Hamas to Hitler and the Nazi’s extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II.”

The Brazilian ambassador was paraded before press cameras into the room of the Book of Names, on which the names of Jews murdered in the Holocaust were inscribed. Meyer and Katz thumbed through the room-long document as a guide explained its significance.

"I brought you to a place that testifies more than anything else to what the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews, including members of my family," said Katz, whose parents are Holocaust survivors and lost his grandparents in the genocide.

Katz said it was important to bring the ambassador to the room to “show him the Book of Names to show him the difference” between the 2023 war and the Nazi genocide in which his parents had survived and lost family.

Katz said that there was a “red line” and that Israel couldn’t “stay silent against blood libels.”

Reprimands for foreign diplomats are usually conducted at the Foreign Ministry building, not the Holocaust Memorial and Museum.

Lula's comments

Lula had made comparisons to Israeli actions and the Holocaust at the African Union Summit on Sunday.

"What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment," said Lula. "In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

Katz had already condemned the Brazilian president’s remarks on Sunday, as “shameful and serious. No one will harm Israel's right to defend itself."

Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan said on Sunday that it was “extremely disappointing that the Brazilian leader, a country of significant stature, would resort to distorting the Holocaust and propagating antisemitic sentiments in such a blatant manner."

Lula’s comments “exhibit clear antisemitism,” and were in contradiction with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, said Dayan. The Yad Vashem chairman noted that Brazil sought to join the IHRA organization.

Dayan argued that it was unacceptable to compare the defensive actions of a state against the October 7 terrorist attack that left 1,200 people dead to the Nazi regime’s systematic murder of 6 million Jewish people. 

Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer on Monday canceled a meeting requested by Meyer in response to Lula's comments. 

Reuters contributed to this report.