Brazilian President Lula da Silva has announced his support for a complaint filed with the International Court of Justice against Israel over alleged genocide in the Gaza Strip. The complaint was filed on December 29 by South Africa and Brazil began to support it, with support announced this Wednesday by Lula during a meeting in Brasilia with the Palestinian Ambassador to Brazil, Ibrahin Alzeben.
“In light of the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, President Lula expressed support for South Africa’s initiative to request the International Court of Justice to order Israel to immediately cease all acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of the Crime of Genocide” , Itamaraty, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement after Lula’s meeting with the diplomat.
In the document, Itamaraty recalled various efforts by Brazilian diplomacy to broker a truce between Israeli and Hamas forces while Brazil commanded the UN Security Council late last year, efforts that were thwarted by a veto from the US, its main ally Israel. And he reiterated that the brutality of Hamas’s attacks on civilians, which killed 1,400 people in Israel on October 7 last year, cannot justify an equally brutal response by the Israeli military against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“President Lula recalled Brazil’s immediate condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. He reiterated, however, that such actions do not justify Israel’s indiscriminate, repeated and disproportionate use of force against civilians. There are already more than 23 thousand dead, and 70% of them are women and children,” a statement from Brazilian diplomacy regarding the meeting between Lula and Alzeben is detailed.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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