Unprecedented Diplomatic Crisis Between Brazil and Israel

The situation in Palestine is so tense and heated that a spark is enough to cause an explosion. This is evidenced by the ongoing diplomatic crisis between Brazil and Israel, which erupted after controversial statements by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who compared the Israeli military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attacks last October 7 to the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. A more serious insult than this cannot be imagined. Tel Aviv’s very sharp reaction was not long in coming: President Lula was declared “persona non grata” in Israel.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira recalled the Latin American country’s ambassador to Israel, Fred Meyer, “for consultations,” before summoning Israel’s ambassador to Brazil, to whom he expressed “the seriousness of the statements and decisions of the Israeli government.”

This topic was raised by President Lula himself during an urgent meeting with some ministers, including President’s Public Relations Minister Paulo Pimenta and Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha, as well as the Undersecretary to the President of the Republic, Marcio Macedo, and the Special Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, Celso Amorim.

As a first measure to avoid further missteps in the matter, it was decided that the only person who would be in a position to give an official opinion on the matter would be the head of Brazilian diplomacy, Mauro Vieira, and Ambassador Meyer would have to devise a strategy to ease relations between Brazil and the Jewish state.

Before leaving for Brazil, Ambassador Meyer was reprimanded by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who summoned him “for consultations” to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to tell him that the country would not forget or forgive President Lula’s words, which are considered a “serious anti-Semitic attack.”