Latin American states back Lula as Brazil's First Lady says husband's comments were 'not antisemitic'

Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is receiving support from his Latin American neighbors in a growing diplomatic spat with Israel, while the country's First Lady is defending his comments as condemning the Israeli government, not the Jewish people, and concluded that the statement was not antisemitic.

The leaders of Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia, all of whom have condemned Israel's conduct in Gaza, came out with messages of solidarity for Lula after he accused the Jewish state of "genocide" in Gaza and compared it to the Holocaust.

In a television interview on Monday, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro resorted to his usual anti-U.S. rhetoric in saying Hitler was “a monster created by Western elites.” He then added, “today, the criminal military apparatus of Israel has the same encouragement, funding and support.”

Colombian president Gustavo Petro took to X to show his support, writing: “In Gaza, there is a genocide, and thousands of children, women and elderly civilians are (being) cowardly murdered. Lula has only spoken the truth, and the truth (must be) defended, or barbarism will annihilate us.”

Petro added that the decision of the International Court of Justice in the case brought by South Africa against Israel should bear actionable consequences on the diplomatic relations of all the countries around the world.

Finally, Bolivia’s Luis Arce, also used X to express his solidarity with Lula, writing that he was “telling the truth about the genocide that is committed against the brave Palestinian people.” He concluded, "History will not forgive those who were indifferent to this barbarism."

Meanwhile, First Lady Janja Lula Silva echoed her husband's words, calling the Israeli government "genocidal."

In a post on X, she wrote: “The speech referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people,” arguing that the comments were not antisemitic in nature, and had President Lula been alive during World War II, he would have defended the Jews in the same way. The First Lady went on to accuse journalists of covering up the alleged genocide in Gaza by refusing to publish photographs of dead Palestinian children.

The country's foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, who on Monday summoned Jerusalem's envoy, accused the Israeli government of creating a "smokescreen" to cover up its actions in Gaza. 

Speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Vieira said that in declaring President Lula "persona non grata," Israel's Foreign Ministry was treating the head of a friendly nation in an "unusual and revolting" manner. "It is a shameful page in the history of Israel's diplomacy,” he added. Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz publicly reprimanded Brazil's ambassador, summoning him to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial where he demanded a retraction and apology from Lula.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Brazil to attend the G20 meeting, in his first trip to the South American country. Blinken's inaugural visit had been postponed due to his frequent travels to the Middle East. 

Though Blinken himself has not weighed into the brewing rift between Brazil and Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller addressed Lula's remarks, saying "Obviously we disagree with those comments. We have been quite clear that we do not believe that genocide has occurred in Gaza," Miller told reporters on Tuesday.