Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has come under fire from Israel for accusing the country of committing genocide in Gaza and comparing its actions to the Holocaust.
Lula said Israel’s military campaign was between a “highly prepared army and women and children”. Israel condemned Lula for trivialising the Holocaust and stated that it is fighting to destroy Hamas and return hostages taken by the militant group on October 7th.
The main Jewish organization in Brazil has also criticized Lula’s comments, calling it a distortion of reality that offends the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants. Lula’s latest comments come after Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, commented that they amounted to “Holocaust trivialisation and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself”.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in January that South Africa’s case against Israel could proceed. The court instructed Israel to prevent its military from committing acts that might be considered genocidal, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to enable humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
On the ground in Gaza, the World Health Organization has said the territory’s Nasser hospital has ceased to function following an Israeli raid, although the Israeli Defense Forces called the operation “precise and limited” and accused Hamas of “cynically using hospitals for terror”.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have been taking place in Cairo, though Qatar mediators said recent progress was “not very promising”. Brazil and South Africa are members of the Brics group of countries – an alliance of some of the world’s most important developing economies brought together to challenge wealthier Western nations. The two countries have been making moves to challenge Israel’s actions in Gaza through legal and diplomatic means.
The recent conflict in Gaza continues to escalate as the world watches and waits for a resolution to the crisis.
