BRASILIA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva once again described Israel’s military aggression against the Gaza Strip as “genocide” at a public event in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
“What the Israeli government is doing is not a war, it is genocide. Children and women are being murdered,” President Lula said at the event and then posted his comments on social media.
He also expressed his support for the creation of a “free and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Recently, the Brazilian president accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, comparing its actions with the Holocaust against Jews in Europe. His remarks angered the Israeli government, which declared Lula “persona non grata in the state” until he retracted his remarks and issued an apology.
In a related context, Gustavo Petro and Luis Arce, the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia respectively, both expressed “solidarity” with Lula last Tuesday after he was slammed by Israel for calling its war on Gaza “genocide” against Palestinians and compared it with Adolf Hitler’s campaign against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
“In Gaza there is genocide and thousands of children, women and elderly civilians are cowardly murdered,” Petro said on X. “Lula has only spoken the truth and the truth is defended or barbarism will annihilate us. The entire region must unite to immediately end the violence in Palestine.”
Arce also took to social media to link arms with Lula. “History will not forgive those who are indifferent to this barbarity,” he wrote. The Brazilian president, he said, had told the truth about the genocide being committed against the “brave Palestinian people.”
