Brazil-Israel relationship worsens under Lula government compared to Bolsonaro

The Brazilian government’s relationship with Israel worsened last year, during the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and declined further after the PT member’s statement this Sunday (18) comparing Israel’s attacks against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust.

Lula stated during a press conference held in Ethiopia this Sunday that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has not existed at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed. When Hitler decided to kill the Jews”, comparing the current conflict with the Holocaust.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reacted harshly to the Brazilian president’s statements, stating that comparing Israel to the Holocaust and Hitler “was crossing a red line.”

“The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and serious. This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the people of Israel’s right to defend themselves,” said the Israeli prime minister on his profile on X, formerly Twitter.

The “disastrous” comparison made by the PT member was criticized by Israeli entities and parliamentarians. The Novo party presented a criminal report against the president for having committed the crime of racism by making an anti-Semitic speech. The opposition bench also filed a request for impeachment against Lula this Sunday (18).

On the other hand, Lula’s speech was praised by the terrorist group Hamas in a publication on the official Telegram channel. “We appreciate the statement by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who described what our Palestinian people are being subjected to in the Gaza Strip as a Holocaust, and that what the Zionists are doing in Gaza today is the same as Nazi Hitler did to the Jews during World War II,” the Hamas statement said.

Faced with criticism of Lula’s speech, the government’s Communications Secretariat issued a note stating that Lula had “several times” opposed the attack by the extremist group and that he “always condemned terrorist acts by Hamas.” The head of Secom, minister Paulo Pimenta, said that “the international community cannot remain silent in the face of the massacre of a people who cannot suffer extermination for the crimes committed by a group that must be punished for what it did.”

“Our solidarity is with the civilian population of Gaza, who are suffering for acts they did not commit. (…) President Lula’s words have always been for peace and to strengthen the feeling of solidarity among the people”, stated Pimenta.

This was not the first time that Lula offended Israel and has maintained a “conflictive relationship” with the Israeli people. Since the start of the war, on October 7, 2023, the PT member has accused Israel’s attacks of “terrorism” and avoided condemning the terrorist group Hamas. When the group began to administer the Gaza Strip, in 2006, the Brazilian was serving his first term as president of Brazil and, since that time, he has made at least five statements that were in line with the terrorist group’s narrative.

The president even softened criticism against Israel until the complete rescue of Brazilians from Gaza, but raised his tone again after the end of the negotiations. On November 14, the PT member even put the conflict into perspective, just as he did with the war between Russia and Ukraine. “If Hamas committed an act of terrorism, the State of Israel is committing yet another act of terrorism by not taking into account that children are not at war, that women are not at war,” said Lula.

Brazil has always sought to maintain friendly diplomatic relations with both Israel and Palestinian authorities, being an advocate of resolving the conflict through the coexistence of two States: Israel and a Palestinian State. However, Lula’s statements do not match such a diplomatic stance.

On the 15th, Lula once again condemned the intensity of the Israeli army’s counterattack on the Gaza Strip under the “pretext” of fighting Hamas. When participating in a meeting this Saturday (17) with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh, he defended the need for a solution between the two states and called for a ceasefire. “

Israel’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonchine, criticized the current Brazilian government for not considering Hamas a terrorist group. In November last year, he participated in a meeting with former president Jair Bolsonaro and parliamentarians from the conservative bench in the Chamber of Deputies, in which he reported on the situation of the war in the Middle East and presented “very strong and impactful” images of the massacre that has been done by the terrorist group Hamas to the Israeli people.

Another action that further reinforced the Lula government’s “conflictual relationship” with Israel was its support for South Africa’s petition accusing Israel of genocide. Businessmen called for the withdrawal of Brazilian support for the initiative that aims to investigate “acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes” and determine Israel’s immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Bolsonaro’s relationship with Israel

The current scenario has been very different from what was seen over the four years of intense rapprochement with Israel under the leadership of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Israel was the second country to which Bolsonaro made a bilateral visit (that is, just to discuss interests between two countries), in March, right after the United States.

In 2019, during a trip to Israel Bolsonaro demonstrated his “love” for the Israeli country, and participated in an event alongside the Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu – who rarely goes to the airport to meet heads of state. And in the same year, the government founded an office in Jerusalem focused on commercial relations between Brazil and Israel, coordinated by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).

Bolsonaro’s visit to Israel was criticized by the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the group stated that the visit not only contradicts the historical attitude of the Brazilian people in support of the Palestinian cause, but also violates international laws.

The plan that made it possible to repatriate Brazilians after the start of the war in Israel was established during the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). A People’s Gazette learned from members and former members of Itamaraty that the Brazilian embassy in Israel had a very basic contingency plan, which was updated during the previous presidential term, and followed by diplomats from the current administration.

Mendonça criticizes Brazil’s position in relation to Israel

Brazil’s current relationship with Israel was criticized by minister André Mendonça, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), during an evangelical service this Sunday morning, according to information from the newspaper The globe. Despite not mentioning the comparison of the attacks in the Gaza Strip to the death of Jews in the Holocaust, he preached balance to Brazilian diplomacy and criticized the government’s support for the complaint made by South Africa to the Hague Court in which the African country accuses the Israelis of “genocide”.

“Perhaps if we move more in this direction, instead of endorsing a petition from South Africa, accusing Israel of genocide, it would be the best path for us to be an agent of peace,” said the minister, citing a conversation he had at the embassy Brazilian when she visited Israel.

Mendonça also reinforced the need for the return of those kidnapped by Hamas so that there can be a ceasefire on the part of Israel and recalled that Brazilian diplomacy has always been marked by the search for impartiality. “The hope for Israel is not in defeating Hamas, the hope for Israel is in God, which does not mean defending and justifying terrorist acts,” said the minister.