Lula says Israel’s military action in Gaza “is not war, it is genocide”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated this Friday (23) that Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip “is not war, it is genocide”. The statement comes after the PT member was the target of a series of criticisms for comparing the Israeli reaction to the Holocaust last weekend. Amid the diplomatic crisis and a request for impeachment, the president said he would not exchange his “dignity for falsehood”.

“What the Israeli government is doing to Palestine is not war, it is genocide… If this is not genocide, I don’t know what is”, reinforced the president during a Petrobras event in Rio de Janeiro. At the end of the speech, Lula stated his position on the conflict, but this time he accused Israel of “genocide” and did not mention the Holocaust.

“In the same way that I said when I was in prison that I would not accept a deal to get out of jail, because I would not exchange my dignity for my freedom, I want to tell you: I will not exchange my dignity for falsehood”, began the PT member.

“And I want to tell you that I am in favor of the creation of a free and sovereign Palestinian state. May this Palestinian state live in harmony with the state of Israel. What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide because it is killing women and children,” she added.

The PT member criticized the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. “Don’t try to interpret the interview I gave in Ethiopia. Read the interview instead of judging by what the Prime Minister of Israel said. What is happening in Israel is genocide. And soldiers are not dying, women and children are dying inside the hospital. If this isn’t genocide, I don’t know what genocide is”, he reinforced.

During the event, Lula also stated that the UN Security Council “represents nothing today” and argued that Brazil “has no contention” and “likes peace”. “It is not possible for people to not be sensitive to what is happening in Gaza… What exists in the world today is a lot of hypocrisy and little politics. We cannot accept the war in Ukraine, just as we cannot accept the war in the Gaza Strip , as it cannot accept any war”, he highlighted.