Brazil-Israel Row Over Gaza-Holocaust Comparison Escalates

Brazil-Israel Row Over Gaza-Holocaust Comparison Escalates
Photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

  • Brazil's foreign ministry confirmed on Monday that its ambassador to Israel has been recalled for talks and that the Israeli ambassador to Brazil would be summoned amid a diplomatic row over Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's comparison between the war in Gaza and the Holocaust.

  • This comes as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer for a reprimand during an atypical meeting and tour at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, declaring Lula "persona non grata" until he withdraws his comments.


The Spin

Pro-Palestine narrative

In the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust, the world has pledged to never again allow a similar tragedy to be repeated. Yet, no one is doing anything to protect Gazans as they are being brutally killed in genocidal proportions by the Israeli occupation in its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip. Hopefully, the words of Lula will inspire the international community to halt this atrocity.

Pro-Israel narrative

While one may argue that Israel has been somewhat harsh in its war against the genocidal Hamas, comparing its actions to that of Nazis is nothing but an outrageous and bad-faith attempt to appropriate the Holocaust and trample on the traumatic history of the Jewish community. If Israel intended to exterminate Gaza's entire population as claimed, it wouldn't allow — let alone warn — the civilian population to stay out of the way.

Nerd narrative

There's a 12% chance that the International Criminal Court will bring charges against Benjamin Netanyahu before 2026, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


Establishment split

CRITICAL

PRO

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