Israel declares Brazil's president Lula 'persona non grata' over Gaza remarks it deems 'serious antisemitic attack'
By Guardian-Martin Belam and Reged Ahmad Mon 19 Feb 2024 10.35
Israel has declared Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “persona non grata” over comments he made in which he accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza which he compared to the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
Having summoned Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz issued a statement saying:
We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious antisemitic attack. In my name and the name of the citizens of Israel – tell president Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back.
At the weekend, Brazil’s president said “What is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. It did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. 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.”
Ahead of the diplomatic meeting this morning, senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov at the Jewish Insider had made these observations at how unusual the setting was, noting:
[Katz is] doing a few unusual things: The reprimand will happen at Yad Vashem. Katz is doing it himself and not a foreign minister deputy director-general. Also, he invited the media to a statement immediately after. The statement is unusual in of itself, but it also means that photographers will be around to catch the ambassador leaving the reprimand. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t necessarily seem like a big deal, but for diplomats, takes the reprimand up a level.
Benjamin Netanyahu described the words as “shameful and alarming” and “a trivialization of the Holocaust”.
This morning the health ministry in Gaza reported that over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 69,000 injured as a result of Israel’s military action within the Gaza Strip.
Emanuel Fabian, who is a military correspondent at the Times of Israel, has posted this picture of the site of the investigation into a reported fallen drone in northern Israel.
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Israel declares Brazil's president Lula 'persona non grata' over Gaza remarks it deems 'serious antisemitic attack'
Israel has declared Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “persona non grata” over comments he made in which he accused IsraelEveryone of carrying out a genocide in Gaza which he compared to the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
Having summoned Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz issued a statement saying:
We will not forget nor forgive. It is a serious antisemitic attack. In my name and the name of the citizens of Israel – tell president Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he takes it back.
At the weekend, Brazil’s president said “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. It did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. 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.”
Ahead of the diplomatic meeting this morning, senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov at the Jewish Insider had made these observations at how unusual the setting was, noting:
[Katz is] doing a few unusual things: The reprimand will happen at Yad Vashem. Katz is doing it himself and not a foreign minister deputy director-general. Also, he invited the media to a statement immediately after. The statement is unusual in of itself, but it also means that photographers will be around to catch the ambassador leaving the reprimand. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t necessarily seem like a big deal, but for diplomats, takes the reprimand up a level.
Benjamin Netanyahu described the words as “shameful and alarming” and “a trivialization of the Holocaust”.
This morning the health ministry in GazaIt reported that over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 69,000 injured as a result of Israel’s military action within the Gaza Strip.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is taking a break after hearing evidence about the legality and nature of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It will reconvene in ten minutes.
The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli action since 7 October has risen to about 29,000 – ministry
The health ministry in Gaza has said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli military action since 7 October has risen to 29,092.
In the past 24 hours, 107 Palestinians were killed and 145 injured, Reuters reports the ministry said in its statement. 69,028 are reported injured in total.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Paul Reichler, at the International Court of Justice, has said that among the countries and organizations to submit written statements to the court, only Fiji and the US defend Israel. The US, he says, argues not that the occupation is lawful, but that it is “neither lawful nor unlawful”.
Haaretz reports that a bomb squad is in attendance after a reported drone fell near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
Law professor Andreas Zimmerman has addressed the capability of the International Court of Justice to hear the case over the “policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
In his section, he stated that there are no compelling reasons for the court not to hear the case, as even if it has political considerations, the questions posed are also clearly of a legal nature.
Paul Reichler is the next person to address the court. He is presenting evidence which he says indicates that Israel’s occupation violatesto international law. He says “Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian territory is manifestly and gravely unlawful and international law requires it be brought to an end completely and unconditionally”
He argues that there is a clear set of legal obligations for states when temporarily occupying a territory. He says “Whatviolates makes Israel’s occupation unlawful is precisely its permanent character”, citing statements by Israeli government ministers about expanding Israeli sovereignty permanently in areas of the West Bank, and the establishment of hundreds of permanent settlements within West Bank territory.
He says it is quite clear that it has been the policy aim of successive Israeli governments to create a “single Jewish State extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”.
What44m ago09.56 GMT
Lisa O'Carroll
Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, has again stressed her country’s position that Israel has the right to defend itself, albeit as long as it complies with international humanitarian law. But she has called for a humanitarian ceasefire. Speaking in Brussels this morning, she said:
I just came back from Israel. I’ve been five times in the region, not only in Israel, [but also] in the [occupied] West Bank, in Jordan, in the Gulf countries, to make [it] very clear.
For us it is of the highest importance that we come to peace in the Middle East.
And this means we need a humanitarian ceasefire. We need the release of the hostages. We need Hamas to lay down its weapons.
And we need the compliance of international humanitarian law by the reaction from Israel after the 7 October and their right of self-defence.”
At ICJ Palestinian Authority says it is a 'moral and legal obligation' to bring Israeli occupiation of the occupationWest Bank to an end
Riyad al-Maliki, representing the Palestinian Authority, has said that Israelthe is committing genocide in Gaza and has enforced a policy of apartheid against Palestinians for years, and that “allowing this to continue is unacceptable. It is a moral and legal obligation to bring it to a prompt end.”
Addressing the International Court of Justice in The Hague, he said “Palestine was not a land without a people” and it had been subject to a decision made thousands of miles away over a hundred years ago – referring to the Balfour Declaration.
He said that “for decades Palestinians have been denied” the right to self-determination.
The court is now hearing an argument from the Palestinian legal team about why it should find the case admissible and why the court has jurisdiction to rule on it.
Riyad al-Maliki has opened his statement in The Hague, telling the International Court of Justice he is proud to be there representing Palestine, and that his appearance comes as “2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of them children, are besieged and bombed, killed and maimed, starved and displaced”
He says “There is a genocide happening in Gaza” and that occupation of Israel should come to “an unconditional end”.
He says there are “more than 3.5 million Palestinians … subjected to colonization of their territory and the racist violence that enables it” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, and says “1.7 million Palestinians in Israel are treated as second-class citizens in their ancestral land.”
Here is a picture of Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour at the International Court of Justice in The Hague this morning.
Hearing opens at ICJ into 'the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'
Proceedings have started for the day at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands.
Before the court today is “advisory proceedings on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”
There is a live stream that you can watch here.
AP reports that the Palestinian legal team will tell the panel of international judges that Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swaths of occupied land and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and has imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.
51 countries and three international organizations will also have an opportunity to speak. The court will probably take months to issue its opinion. There are public hearings scheduled every working day between now and Monday. Here is the schedule (times are local time):
- Mon 19 February: 10am – 1.15pm
- Tue 20 February: 10am – 1.10pm and 3pm – 5.40pm
- Wed 21 February: 10am – 1.10pm and 3pm – 5.40pm
- Thu 22 February: 10am – 1.10pm and 3pm – 6.10pm
- Fri 23 February: 10am – 1.10pm and 3pm – 6.10pm
- Mon 26 February: 10am – 12.40am and 3pm – 4.30pm
Lisa O'Carroll
EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said “Everyone is afraid” Benjamin Netanyahu will give the go ahead to a military offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza, in the coming days despite mounting international pressure to resist.
Arriving at the summit foreign ministers in Brussels he also lamented one member state, Hungary, for failing to sign a communique last Friday calling for the Israeli prime minister not to go ahead.
In the event, the statement went out with 26 signatures.
Borrell said:
[We have] only the same bad news 1.7mn people are being pushed against the Eyptian border. The military operation has not happened, but everybody is afraid that this will happen in the next days. The only solution is to free the hostages and for a permanent ceasefire that could allow to look for a political solution.
Belgium’s foreign minister Hadja Lahbib says she will press her counterparts to support a ceasefire at today’s summit. She said:
As you know, the situation is increasingly alarming with 1.5mn refugees in the south of Rafah, Palestinians who lack everything, and the threat of a ground operation which has been repeated again by the Netanyahu cabinet.
We continue to call for a ceasefire, unhindered access to humanitarian aid and the release of hostages. This is Belgium’s position and it is the one that I will defend again today.
In its latest operational update, Israel’s military has said it continues operations in Khan Younis, claiming to have located “AK-47s, drones, an RPG, explosive devices, and additional military equipment where located.”
It claims that Israel’s air force struck at what it termed an “armed terrorist cell” after forces in Gaza “fired a rocket from the central Gaza Strip which crossed into Israeli territory and fell near kibbutz Be’eri in an open area.”
In addition, the IDF says that in the west of Khan Younis, it “encountered armed terrorists, conducted targeted raids on terror targets, seized weapons, and directed a helicopter to strike and eliminate an additional terrorist.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
