Brazilian president compares Palestinian 'genocide' to the Holocaust

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Brazilian President Lula da Silva has compared what he called the genocide of Palestinian people with the Holocaust, hours after blasting the U.N. Security Council, leading Israel to summon Brazilian ambassador "for a reprimand."

"What's happening in the Gaza Strip isn't a war, it's a genocide. It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It's a war between a highly prepared army and women and children," Lula said while in Ethiopia for the African Union summit.

He added that, "What's happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn't happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

Earlier, Lula had said on social media that the U.N. Security Council does not want more countries to join even though "geopolitics is different from 1945."

"We need more representation from more countries, including from the Global South," Lula said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose grandfather Nathan Mileikowsky was a prominent leader in the Zionist movement and emigrated from the United States to what was then the Palestine Mandate in the 1920s, blasted Lula for his comments.

"The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and serious. This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself," Netanyahu said on social media.

"Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line. Israel fights for its defense and securing its future until complete victory and it does so while upholding international law."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that he has decided to summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel "for a stern reprimand conversation immediately."

The comments from Lula show an increasing unity among prominent nations in the Global South, following South Africa's charges of genocide against Israel.

Lula is not the first world leader to compare the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust. Previously, Columbian President Gustavo Petro said: "Democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to re-establish itself in international politics. Israelis and Palestinians are human beings subject to international law. This hate speech if it continues will only bring a holocaust."

Other countries in the Global South that have condemned Israel include Bolivia, which severed ties with Israel, as well as the chairperson of the African Union and Indonesia. In the northern hemisphere, other countries that have condemned Israel include, among others, Ireland and Turkey.

Late Sunday, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz warned that Hamas must free all hostages held in Gaza by March 10 to avert an offensive in Rafah.

It is the first time Israel has said when its troops might enter Gaza's overcrowded southern city.

Global opposition is growing to an attack in Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Earlier, the U.N. public health agency said a key Gaza hospital had ceased to function following an Israeli raid.