The Government of Israel declared this Monday ‘persona non grata‘to the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaafter comparing the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip after the attacks carried out on October 7 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) with the Holocaust committed by Adolf Hitler against the Jews during world war II.

“We will not forgive and we will not forget. In my name and in the name of the citizens of Israel, I have informed President Lula that he is ‘persona non grata’ in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words,” said the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz.

During the day, Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, Federico Mayerto file a complaint about the president’s statements, a meeting that took place at the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem“a place that serves as a witness to what the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews.”

“Lula’s comparison between Israel’s just war against Hamas and the actions of Hitler and the Nazis, who killed six million Jewsis a serious anti-Semitic attack that desecrates the memory of those who perished during the Holocaust,” he said in a message published on his account on the social network X.

Lula stated during the day on Sunday that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people does not exist in any other historical moment“. “But It existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews“he stated from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where he was attending the African Union summit as a guest.

The Brazilian response has not been long in coming and President Lula’s special advisor for international policy, Celso Amorim, has described it as “absurd“a measure that “only increases Israel’s isolation,” says G1.

“Lula is treated throughout the world at a time when the one who is ‘non grata’ is Israel,” said Amorim, who stressed that this is a personal opinion, having not yet been able to speak with the Brazilian president, who arrives this Monday from Ethiopia.

The Israeli Army launched its offensive against Gaza after the aforementioned Hamas attacks, which left 1,200 dead and 240 injured. Since then, Palestinian authorities have reported the deaths of nearly 29,100 Palestiniansto which are added nearly 390 Palestinians who died in the West Bank and East Jerusalem due to the actions of the security forces and Israeli settlers.