Lula and Petro’s speeches about Israel are criticized in the US Chamber

The Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee held this Thursday (7) in Washington a hearing on anti-Semitism in Latin America, in which criticism was made of the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro.

In February, Lula declared that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people”, where Israel is carrying out an offensive against the terrorist group Hamas, can only be compared to what happened when “Hitler decided to kill the Jews” and called the Israeli action of genocide.

Petro, who had previously made statements against Israel, supported the Brazilian president and also classified the offensive in Gaza as a genocide.

In the case of Boric, the president of the subcommittee, María Salazar, deputy of the Republican Party of Florida, recalled at the hearing that the president of Chile summoned his ambassador to Israel for consultations, banned the country from participating in a Chilean aerospace festival and criticized in 2019, when he was still a deputy.

“The Jewish Community in Chile sent me a small pot of honey for the Jewish New Year, reaffirming their commitment to ‘a more inclusive, supportive and respectful society’. I appreciate the gesture, but they could ask Israel to return the illegally occupied Palestinian territory,” Boric wrote on Twitter (now X) at the time.

“It is despicable that heads of state have these types of opinions, but it is even more worrying for us that these leaders I just mentioned are the Biden administration’s favorite partners in the Western Hemisphere,” said Salazar, according to information from the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and from the Chilean La Tercera.

“What is happening with Petro, Lula or Boric is despicable”, added the congresswoman, who stated that “in Brazil alone there has been a 1,000% increase in anti-Semitic attacks in recent months”.

Deborah Lipstadt, chief of the office of the US State Department’s Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, attended the hearing.

“It is offensive and regrettable that leaders like Petro have compared what is happening [em Gaza] with Hitler. We are very disappointed that some have decided to suspend relations with Israel and others, like Colombia, have called their ambassadors for consultations,” said Lipstadt.

Statements by the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, were also mentioned at the hearing.