Associates of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva said today (Wednesday) that he is considering clarifying his recent anti-Israel to the Jewish community in his country.
At the same time, his associates added that he does not intend to publish an apology for his words, but will explain his speech in which he compared the actions of Israel in the Gaza Strip to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Several senior officials in da Silva's office said that the Brazilian president will likely meet with leaders of the Jewish community in Brazil in an attempt to provide them with explanations for the speech that created a diplomatic crisis with Israel and led to accusations of Holocaust inversion and antisemitism.
The officials stated that if the clarification is given, it will not be this week, and he will wait to see if the controversy subsides soon and makes such a clarification unnecessary.
124 out of 513 members of the Brazillian Parliament have endorsed a call for da Silva's impeachment over his remarks.
Earlier this week, da Silva recalled the Brazillian ambassador to Israel after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned the ambassador for a reprimand over da Silva's remarks. The reprimand took place at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.
During the meeting, Katz showed Mayer the list of names of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, including members of his own family.
"I called you to the place which more than anywhere else testifies to everything the Nazis and Hitler did to the Jews, among them my family members," Katz said. "The comparison between the just war that Israel is fighting against Hamas and the horrors perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazis is an embarrassment and disgrace and a serious antisemitic attack."
Katz also said that da Silva would be a persona non grata in Israel: "We will not forgive and we will not forget: In my name and in the name of all citizens of Israel, tell President Lula that he is a persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his statements."
On Sunday, da Silva compared the IDF’s actions in Gaza to Hitler’s actions against Jews in World War II, saying, "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not war. This is genocide. It is not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It is a war between a trained military against women and children. What is happening in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people has not happened at almost any other time in history. In fact, it only happened once; when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."