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Lula Recalls Israel Envoy Amid Escalating Clash Over Genocide Remarks
The Brazilian president's move comes after the leftist leader was declared persona non grata in Israel for comparing its genocidal war on Gaza to Hitler's extermination of Jews.
Feb 19, 2024
Brazil recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv for talks on Monday after Israel's foreign minister declared Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva persona non grata for condemning the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Israeli state broadcaster Kanreported that Lula recalled Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer amid the escalating row over comments the leftist leader made over the weekend in Ethiopia. The Brazilian news site Carta Capitalreported that Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira called Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine for a meeting on Monday.
This, after Lula told attendees at the African Union (A.U.) summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday that "what's happening in the Gaza Strip isn't a war, it's a genocide."
"It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers," Lula continued. "It's a war between a highly prepared army and women and children."
"It is important to remember that in 2010 Brazil was the first country to recognize the Palestinian state," he said. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people did not exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."
Lula asked: "Who will help rebuild those houses that were destroyed? Who will repay the lives of 30,000 people who have died, 70,000 who are injured? Who will return the lives of the children who died without knowing why they were dying?"
According to Palestinian officials, at least 29,092 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed, 69,028 wounded, and more than 7,000 others left missing and presumed dead under the rubble as a result of Israel's 136-day assault on the besieged coastal enclave of 2.3 million people, around 90% of whom have been forcibly displaced.
Lula's remarks were well received by A.U. summit attendees, who issued a statement condemning Israel's "brutal" war on Gaza.
"Gaza is being completely annihilated and its people are deprived of all of their rights," declared A.U. Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, who added that he "condemns the Israeli operation, which is unparalleled in the history of humanity."
Mahamat underscored his support for South Africa as it leads a Gaza genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which found in a provisional ruling last month that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israeli leaders were incensed by Lula's remarks. Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said da Silva had "crossed a line."
"The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming," Netanyahu said in a statement. "This is a trivialization of the Holocaust and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself."
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lula's comments "shameful and grave."
Katz summoned Meyer for a reprimand at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where the Jewish Brazilian diplomat—whose country sent 20,000 troops to fight the Nazis in World War II—was paraded before a list of Jews killed by the Third Reich.
"We will not forget and we will not forgive," Katz told Meyer. "In my name, and in the name of all Israeli citizens, tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he retracts his statements."
Persona non grata is Latin for "unwelcome person." Legally, "it refers to the practice of a state prohibiting a diplomat from entering the country as a diplomat, or censuring a diplomat already resident in the country for conduct unbecoming of the status of a diplomat," according to the U.S. State Department.
Celso Amorim, a former foreign and defense minister who now serves as Lula's chief adviser for international affairs, called Katz's declaration "absurd."
"It only increases Israel's isolation," Amorim told Brazilian journalist Andréia Sadi. "Lula is sought all over the world and at the moment, Israel is persona non grata."
Palestine defenders in Brazil and beyond embraced Israel's rebuke of Lula. The Arab Palestinian Federation of Brazil said on social media that it's "an honor for Lula's biography" to be "persona non grata in the colonial occupation that calls itself a country."
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Civil Society Calls On African Union to Foster Fossil-Free Future for Continent
"Instead of selling away fossil fuel extraction rights to big multinational companies, African leaders should invest in clean, renewable energies that will directly benefit people across the continent without damaging their health."
Feb 17, 2023
As diplomats and political leaders headed to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for an African Union summit, civil society groups from the continent argued Friday that "rather than doubling down on the obsolete and dirty energy systems," the A.U. must "move away from harmful fossil fuels towards a transformed energy system that is clean, renewable, democratic, and actually serves its peoples."
African groups are also circulating to heads of state and ministers attending the A.U. summit a report launched by Don't Gas Africa, in cooperation with the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, at COP27—the United Nations climate conference hosted by Egypt in November that critics called "another terrible failure" because attendees refused to agree to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
The November document asserts that "Africa has a monumental opportunity to pursue sustainable socioeconomic development without relying on fossil fuels," pushing back against arguments made by some world leaders, industry, and a 2022 International Energy Agency (IEA) publication that African nations should quickly extract and export their natural gas reserves.
"The Africa we want is one where the energy system is clean and sustainable and brings real access to African people."
"The idea that gas will bring prosperity and opportunities to Africans is a tired and overused fallacy, promulgated by those that stand to benefit the most: multinational fossil fuel firms and the elite politicians that aid and abet them," the report states. "It is a huge gamble to pursue these gas projects throughout Africa in the hope that they will bring development, wealth, and industry. It is highly likely that they will not and, instead, will burden African governments and citizens with vast debts, stranded assets, environmental degradation, and more broken promises."
Activists including Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe, campaigns lead for Don't Gas Africa, echoed those messages Friday, declaring that “African land is not a gas station. Millions are losing their homes, don't have access to food, have their health threatened, and are slipping into higher levels of extreme poverty because of the fossil fuel industry."
"Instead of selling away fossil fuel extraction rights to big multinational companies," he said, "African leaders should invest in clean, renewable energies that will directly benefit people across the continent without damaging their health."
\u201cAt #AUSummit, Africa\u2019s leaders must speak with a common voice and:\n\n\ud83d\udd25Call out claims that gas is a "clean fuel"\n\ud83c\udf0dLabel gas what it is\u2026 a dangerous distraction for Africa\n\ud83c\udf1eCall for rapid transition to people-centered, clean energy\n\n#DontGasAfrica @DontGasAfrica\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1676627246
African Climate Reality Project Courtney Morgan similarly warned that "gas is a bridge to nowhere and will not address energy access challenges on our continent. Decision-makers and policymakers should be supporting sustainable solutions; for a fossil-free Africa."
"The Africa we want is one where the energy system is clean and sustainable and brings real access to African people," Morgan stressed. "The neocolonial gas project on our continent will not serve our needs and will exacerbate the climate crisis, we need African-led sustainable solutions."
Africa Climate Movements Building Spaces coordinator Lorraine Chiponda agreed that "we should not allow further colonial and extractive systems to put Africa on a destructive path," and called on the continent's leaders "to co-create a just development path together with African people that is clean, pan-African, and champions people's regenerative economies away from fossil fuels."
Their demands aligned with calls from campaigners who, over the past year, have blasted the IEA report, condemned African leaders' plan for new dirty energy development, protested during Africa Energy Week, and warned about the impacts of projects by the United States and other rich nations that have largely caused the global climate emergency.
\u201c\ud83d\udce2Fossil fuel productions ARE NOT for communities. They benefit big corporations.\nAfrican governments MUST push for their people\u2019s benefits and not oil firms. \n\nSay no to energy system capture and energy colonialism!!\n\n#DontGasAfrica\n#AUSummit\u201d— Don't Gas Africa (@Don't Gas Africa) 1676628273
"We're in a climate emergency that is causing increasingly devastating climate impacts, particularly in Africa where adaptation capacity is still low," 350Africa.org regional director Landry Ninteretse said Friday. "African countries cannot bear the world's challenges on their own. This calls for urgent action to build resilience to climate challenges through the abandonment of fossil fuels and a just energy transition to renewable energy."
"There is no place for the expansion of fossil gas in the energy transition in Africa, as it would crowd out resources for renewable energy and dull any hopes for the transition," Ninteretse added. "We urge African leaders to reject the push for gas production in Africa and instead galvanize resources from developed nations to support renewable, community-centered, and accessible clean energy systems vital to achieving a just energy transition in the region."
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