RIO DE JANEIRO: Foreign minister of Brazil on Tuesday blamed his Israeli counterpart for lying as a diplomatic row escalated between the two sides over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s comparison of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Mauro Vieira, whose country is set to host a G20 foreign ministers conference this week, said the remarks by Israel’s Katz were unacceptable and a complete lie as well as outrageous.
Israel has strongly reacted after Lula stated the war in the Gaza Strip is a genocide and compared the Israeli offensive to Hitler’s killing of the Jews.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula had crossed all limits while Katz declared the Brazilian leader persona non grata in the state of Israel so long as he doesn’t take back his remarks and apologize.
Katz also called the Brazilian envoy to Israel Frederico Meyer for a meeting at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center situated in Jerusalem.
The Brazilian foreign ministry then summoned the Israeli envoy to Brazil, Daniel Zonshinem, and withdrew Meyer from Tel Aviv for consultations.
