President compared Israelis to “terrorists” 3 times; The number of criticisms of Hamas and Israel has been almost the same since the beginning of the conflict, but now Tel Aviv has become the main target
With the arrival of the 22 Brazilians who were in the Gaza Strip and their 10 Palestinian family members in Brasília on Monday (13.nov.2023), the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) escalated the tone of criticism of Israel. Compared the Israeli reaction to Hamas to acts of terrorism because of the deaths of Palestinian civilians on 3 occasions. The acts of the extremist group were classified by the president as terrorist in 7 speeches.
“I have seen a lot of brutality, a lot of violence and a lot of irrationality. But I have never seen such brutal and inhumane violence against innocent people. Because, if Hamas committed an act of terrorism and did what it did, the State of Israel is also committing several acts of terrorism by not taking into account that children are not at war.”declared Lula when receiving the repatriates at the Brasília Air Base, on November 13th.
The president has demanded 10 times the release of hostages, mostly Israelis, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, when the group attacked regions south of Israel. In most of the appeals, Lula was generic and did not link the hostages to the extremist group, but in 3 of them, the president cited the extremist group.
“Children could never be taken hostage, no matter where in the world. Hamas must release Israeli children who have been kidnapped from their families,” wrote Lula on his profile on X (formerly Twitter) on October 11th.
According to a survey of the Power360since the beginning of the conflict, on October 7, the PT member has publicly spoken out 183 times. In them he spoke about the war in 38 opportunities. It was, on average, one statement per day about the subject.
The longest period without talking about the conflict was from November 3rd to 10th. There were 52 public statements during the period and none of them addressed the conflict. The dates coincide with the period of negotiations for the release of Brazilians from Gaza.
Lula’s criticism
According to the survey, the president criticized the actions of the extremist group Hamas and the State of Israel almost the same number of times since the start of the war. The PT member made 8 direct criticisms of the Palestinian group and 7 of Israelis from October 7th to November 14th.
Most of the time, he made a broad criticism of the conflict. It is common to hear the president say that war is insanity and condemn attacks on civilians, especially children and women. Between the lines, Lula addresses complaints to both sides.
Lula’s first comment about the war was on the same day the conflict began. The PT member said “shocked” with the news and classified the attacks as “terrorism”but did not attribute them to Hamas immediately.
The first direct criticism of the extremist group came only 4 days later, on October 11, in an official appeal by the president for an end to the war.
The delay in holding Hamas accountable was a source of criticism from opponents. The former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) went so far as to say that the PT and the extremist group are “soul Brothers”.
The PT member referred to the Palestinian group in this way 7 times, which corresponds to almost all direct mentions of Hamas. In 10 of his statements, Lula also condemned the holding of hostages by the extremist group.
Lula defends the creation of a Palestinian State. Furthermore, almost all of his criticism of Hamas are followed by a complaint about Israel’s reaction.
O Power360 took into account the speeches, interviews and lives from the president, in addition to official notes from diplomatic conversations and with representatives of war victims and all the PT member’s publications on his profile on X (formerly Twitter), excluding those that were reproductions of his speeches. The period analyzed was from October 7th to November 15th.
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