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Palestinians, including children, in Gaza city, where the Israeli army launched ground attacks following airstrikes, are migrating towards the southern regions through Al-Rashid Street with whatever belongings they can take with them in Gaza City, Gaza on September 19, 2025. [Mohammed Nassar – Anadolu Agency]
Amnesty’s Crisis Response Manager, Kristyan Benedict, said on Sunday that: “Recognition is no doubt significant but will be a hollow gesture if the UK does not also seek to end Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation, and system of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
Speaking in response to the UK government’s recognition of the State of Palestine Benedict said: “For recognition or any ‘political solution’ to be effective, it must be firmly rooted in respect for human rights and international justice.”
“The UK needs to take action now to ensure Israel lifts the blockade on Gaza, dismantles illegal settlements, ends apartheid, respects Palestinians’ right to return, and upholds the rights of victims on all sides to justice and full reparation.
“Words alone won’t stop the atrocities. Recognition must be tied to real accountability: the UK must halt UK arms exports, divest from arms companies that continue to sell arms to Israel, sanction Israeli officials implicated in crimes under international law and stop trade with settlements.”
A statement issued by the rights organisation emphasised: “The occupation and apartheid system must be ended, and justice must be delivered – anything less while Palestinians continue to be slaughtered by Israeli forces in an ongoing genocide is just empty words.”
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Some Israelis and foreign tourists arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport to leave the region, fearing an escalation of tensions and attacks that began early this morning on the Israeli-Lebanese border in Tel Aviv, Israel on August 25, 2024. [Nir Keidar – Anadolu Agency]
Israel has cancelled the entry visas of 27 left-wing French parliamentarians and officials just two days before their planned visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to a statement released by the group on Sunday, as reported by France 24.
This development comes shortly after Israel barred two British Labour MPs from entering the country, and amid heightened diplomatic tensions following French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France would soon recognise the State of Palestine. Macron has also urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza during the ongoing conflict with Hamas.
Israel’s Ministry of the Interior stated that the cancellations were made under existing legislation, which authorises the denial of entry to individuals deemed to act against the interests of the state.
Seventeen members of the group, affiliated with France’s Ecologist and Communist parties, described the Israeli move as “collective punishment” and appealed to President Macron to take action.
In a joint statement, the group said they had received an official invitation from the French consulate in Jerusalem for a five-day mission intended to “enhance international cooperation and support a culture of peace.”
“Two days before our departure, Israeli authorities cancelled our entry visas, which had been granted a month earlier,” the statement read. “We want to understand what triggered this abrupt decision, which seems to be a form of collective punishment,” they added.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addresses the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 17, 2024. (Photo: Ricardo Stuckert via Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva/Facebook)
The Brazilian president’s move comes after the leftist leader was declared persona non grata in Israel for comparing its genocidal war on Gaza to Hitler’s extermination of Jews.
Brazil recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv for talks on Monday after Israel’s foreign minister declared Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva persona non grata for condemning the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Israeli state broadcaster Kan reported that Lula recalled Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer amid the escalating row over comments the leftist leader made over the weekend in Ethiopia. The Brazilian news site Carta Capital reported that Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieria called Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine for a meeting on Monday.
This, after Lula told attendees at the African Union (A.U.) summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday that “what’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide.”
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers,” Lula continued. “It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”
“It is important to remember that in 2010 Brazil was the first country to recognize the Palestinian state,” he said. “What is happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people did not exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip:
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler… pic.twitter.com/npJVAMO9FQ
Lula asked: “Who will help rebuild those houses that were destroyed? Who will repay the lives of 30,000 people who have died, 70,000 who are injured? Who will return the lives of the children who died without knowing why they were dying?”
According to Palestinian officials, at least 29,092 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed, 69,028 wounded, and more than 7,000 others left missing and presumed dead under the rubble as a result of Israel’s 136-day assault on the besieged coastal enclave of 2.3 million people, around 90% of whom have been forcibly displaced.
Lula’s remarks were well received by A.U. summit attendees, who issued a statement condemning Israel’s “brutal” war on Gaza.
“Gaza is being completely annihilated and its people are deprived of all of their rights,” declared A.U. Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, who added that he “condemns the Israeli operation, which is unparalleled in the history of humanity.”
Mahamat underscored his support for South Africa as it leads a Gaza genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which found in a provisional ruling last month that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israeli leaders were incensed by Lula’s remarks. Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said da Silva had “crossed a line.”
“The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This is a trivialization of the Holocaust and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lula’s comments “shameful and grave.”
Katz summoned Meyer for a reprimand at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where the Jewish Brazilian diplomat—whose country sent 20,000 troops to fight the Nazis in World War II—was paraded before a list of Jews killed by the Third Reich.
“We will not forget and we will not forgive,” Katz told Meyer. “In my name, and in the name of all Israeli citizens, tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he retracts his statements.”
Persona non grata is Latin for “unwelcome person.” Legally, “it refers to the practice of a state prohibiting a diplomat from entering the country as a diplomat, or censuring a diplomat already resident in the country for conduct unbecoming of the status of a diplomat,” according to the U.S. State Department.
Celso Amorim, a former foreign and defense minister who now serves as Lula’s chief adviser for international affairs, called Katz’s declaration “absurd.”
“It only increases Israel’s isolation,” Amorim told Brazilian journalist Andréia Sadi. “Lula is sought all over the world and at the moment, Israel is persona non grata.”
Palestine defenders in Brazil and beyond embraced Israel’s rebuke of Lula. The Arab Palestinian Federation of Brazil said on social media that it’s “an honor for Lula’s biography” to be “persona non grata in the colonial occupation that calls itself a country.”
