BRAZIL’S PRESIDENT COMPARES ISRAELI ATROCITIES IN GAZA TO THE HOLOCAUST

At the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this weekend, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva likened Israel’s assault on the Gaza strip to Adolf Hitler’s extermination campaign against the Jews.

Lula called Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, unprecedented. He went on to compare the systematic attacks upon the Palestinian civilian population to the Jewish Holocaust.

Taken aback by the comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Brazilian head of state of “trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Brazil’s ambassador to the country to express an official reprimand. Shortly thereafter, Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, spoke personally with Daniel Zonshine, the Israeli ambassador to his country. On Monday night, in a private meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Vieira expressed his government’s discomfort amid the diplomatic row, referring to statements made by Netanyahu as “unacceptable.”