President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized this Tuesday (24) Israel’s reaction after the attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. “It is not because Hamas committed a terrorist act against Israel that this country has to kill millions of innocent people,” he said, on the weekly program Conversa com o Presidente, broadcast on Canal Gov.
Lula said he has already spoken to leaders from several countries – including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, France, Russia and the United Arab Emirates – with the aim of mediating a solution to the conflict. According to him, talks are still planned with leaders from China, South Africa and Qatar.
“I’m talking to everyone so that we can achieve three things. First, guarantee the humanitarian corridor so that people can receive water, food and medicine. Ensure that there is no lack of electricity in hospitals so that people can be treated. And ensure that no more children are killed. There is no example in humanity of war in which those who die most are children, who are not in the war. And children on both sides, when we don’t want anyone to die.”
“If you don’t talk about peace every day, every day, every day, people forget that it is possible to build peace. When I see authorities talk about war, so-and-so has to kill so-and-so, he has to defeat, that’s not how we solve the problem. At a negotiating table, no one dies. It costs less and we can find a solution. We need to ensure that there, in the Middle East, Israel keeps the territory that is its own and which is demarcated by the UN [Organização das Nações Unidas] and that Palestinians have the right to have their land. It’s that simple and there’s no need for anyone to invade anyone’s land.”
Brazilians
Lula stated that there are Brazilians in the Gaza Strip – including women and children – who are waiting in an area close to the border with Egypt for repatriation. “I have already spoken to the president of Egypt, my minister has already spoken to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the smaller presidential plane is already in Cairo waiting for these people. As soon as the border opens, we will look for Brazilians and bring them here. Because this is where they belong, a safe country that doesn’t have war. And we intend to give them the citizenship that they were unable to gain by living in the Gaza Strip, with brutality and bombings.”
Criticism of the UN
“Every day, we see Israel invading the land of the Palestinians and the UN does nothing because it is weakened. This is my role, to try to create the conditions so that we can return to the negotiating table. Just yesterday I spoke to the [presidente da Rússia, Vladimir] Putin on the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. People need to stop,” said the president.
For Lula, if the UN “had strength”, it could exercise what he called greater interference in the conflict.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
