05 February 2007
Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has joined Jewish leaders to mark the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps. Lula stressed that the Holocaust must never be denied and urged the world to prevent it from ever happening again. "In the 21st century, we cannot accept the denial of the Holocaust as a historical fact," Silva told some 500 people at São Paulo main synagogue on Friday, adding: "Nor can we accept those who deny that six million Jews were massacred… Each time we pay homage to the victims of the Holocaust, we strengthen those forces that will prevent that same horror from repeating itself."
The president did not specifically mention Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the congregation's chief rabbi, Henry Sobel, said the Brazilian president's presence at Friday's Shabbat service represented a repudiation of Ahmadinejad's insistence that the Holocaust was a myth. Sobel also said he was concerned by what he called "growing anti-Semitism in Venezuela." "President Hugo Chávez's rhetoric is anti-Semitic and he is a close ally of the president of Iran, and both of them share a profound hatred of Israel," Sobel told AP. Chávez has cultivated friendly ties with Ahmadinejad and last year called Israeli attacks in Lebanon during a conflict with Hezbollah militants a "new Holocaust." He has made other remarks criticized by some Jewish groups as anti-Semitic, though he said his comments were misinterpreted. The event in São Paolo was also attended by Israel Singer, Chairman of the Policy Council of the World Jewish Congress.
