BRAZILIAN President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva recalled his country’s ambassador to Israel on Monday.

This followed Israel saying that Lula would not be welcome the country until he apologised for comments he made over the weekend that compared Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Lula’s comments as a “very serious anti-semitic attack.”

The Brazilian president told the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it [has] — when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”

Mr Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel’s national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem on Monday for a reprimand.

He said: “The things that Lula said when he compared the righteous war of the state of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred the Jews, and Hitler and the Nazis is shameful and unacceptable.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Lula’s comments “trivialised the Holocaust” and “crossed a red line.”

Celso Amorim, former foreign affairs minister and a special adviser to Lula, told local news outlet G1 that Israel’s reaction was “absurd and only increases Israel’s isolation.”

Mr Amorim added: “At the moment, it’s Israel that’s persona non grata.”