Minister criticizes Israel’s chancellor and says Netanyahu uses war to stay in power

The chief minister of the Presidency’s Social Communication Secretariat, Paulo Pimenta, stated this Tuesday (20) that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, is distributing false information about the statements made by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). At the weekend, the head of the Executive compared Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust. Katz called the statement a “spit in the face of Brazilian Jews.”

“The Chancellor of Israel, Israel Katz, distributes false content attributing opinions to President Lula that were never said by him. At no point did the president criticize the Jewish people, nor did he deny the Holocaust. Lula condemns the massacre of the civilian population of Gaza promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has already killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, including 10,000 children,” Pimenta said in the X.

This Monday (19), Katz took Brazil’s ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and said that Lula would be classified as a “persona non grata” in Israel until he formally retracts. The decision was relayed in Hebrew, a language Mayer does not speak. The gesture was considered a public reprimand by members of the Foreign Ministry. Lula called the ambassador back to Brazil after the episode.

On social media, the Secom minister said that the Netanyahu government “feeds on war to stay in power”. “The majority of the Israeli population rejects the government’s extremist policy and the international community demands an end to the attacks in Gaza. Isolated, the Israeli government adopts far-right practices and relies on fake news to try to reaffirm itself internally and internationally,” he accused.

Pimenta once again said that “historically” the president “defends the coexistence of two states as a definitive solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and “from the first day” he condemned “the Hamas attacks against the people of Israel as terrorist”.