Since the outbreak of the war, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has not stopped slandering Israel, which declared him an 'unwanted personality', and on Wednesday relations between the two countries reached a new low, when Lula announced that he would recall his ambassador from Tel Aviv. The ambassador actually has not been in Israel for about three months, since he returned to his country for "consultations" following the shaky relations between the two countries.
The move was announced in Brazil’s official gazette. Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "an official message has not yet been received from the Brazilian government on the matter. Following the report, the Brazilian commissioner has been summoned tomorrow to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a meeting on the matter."
The ambassador, Federico Mayer, has been transferred to Geneva and will join Brazil’s permanent mission to the United Nations and other international organizations. He returned to Tel Aviv last week after being recalled three months ago for "consultations" and reports suggest that his arrival in Israel may have been for the purpose of promoting his departure.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
(Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/ BRAZILIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP)
The Brazilian diplomatic mission will remain under the management of the Embassy Commissioner. It is not clear if or when a new ambassador will be appointed in Meyer's place, with experts here believeing that it is unlikely. Israel's ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zohar-Zonshine, continues to work there as usual.
Lula, a leftist who returned to power last year after a narrow victory in the elections over rightist President Jair Bolsonaro, previously condemned the Hamas massacre of October 7 and acknowledged that it was a terrorist attack, but soon after became one of the most prominent voices against the IDF's operation in Gaza .
In February, Lula accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and compared the IDF's actions to the destruction of the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not war, but genocide," he said. "This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It is a war between a highly prepared army and women and children. What is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
In response, Foreign Minister Israel Katz decided to summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for a reprimand, and later gave him a tour of Yad Vashem before Meyer left for Brazil for consultations. He later said that the president of Brazil is an "unwanted personality in Israel" until he apologizes.
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Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that President Lula is an "unwanted personality" until he apologizes for accusing Israel of genocide
(Photos: Ricardo Stuckert / BRAZILIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP)
A week before, after his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Lula claimed that "Israel's behavior has no explanation," and accused Israel, saying "under the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children." Lula then added that there would be no peace without the establishment of a Palestinian state, and called for an immediate cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
About two months ago Lula made a particularly embarrassing mistake when he said in a public speech that 12.3 million children were killed in Israel and Gaza in "insane war bombings against humanity."
During a nationwide conference on children's and youth rights held last Wednesday, President da Silva, who has previously likened Israel's actions to Hitler's genocide, urged the audience to raise their hands as a symbol of solidarity with the children of Gaza. He further stated: "Let's honor nearly 40,000 children who lost their lives or were orphaned due to the coronavirus, Brazilian children who succumbed to malnutrition as they're still not receiving the necessary calories and proteins, and primarily - this is a tribute to the nearly 12.3 million children who lost their lives in the Gaza Strip and Israel due to the bombings in a deranged war against humanity."
This is, of course, a completely absurd figure. Foreign Minister Katz responded to the words of the Brazilian president: "There should be a law that every person who wants to become president must learn to count."
The figure he quoted is grossly exaggerated. The Palestinian Ministry of Health, under the governance of Hamas, has reported that the war resulted in approximately 33,000 Palestinian deaths, of which 12,400 were children.
Reacting to President da Silva's remarks, Israel's Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said: "There should be a law mandating anyone who wants to be a president to learn how to count."