Radical leftist president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used his opening speech to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday to condemn the government of Israel for allegedly seeking “revenge” against Hamas terrorists and to defend widespread censorship of conservatives.
Brazil opens the speeches at the General Assembly every year, a tradition that began in 1955 when Brazil’s leaders offered speak first as other countries hesitated.
Lula began his speech, the second since he took office for a third term in January 2023, by making special mention of the Palestinian delegation and welcoming the presence of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Despite not being a country, the United Nations always grants the Palestinian Authority a speaking spot at the General Assembly.
The Brazilian president covered several topics such as the war in Ukraine, Israeli self-defense operations against the jihadists of Hamas, alleged climate change, and calls to reform the United Nations Charter and the U.N. Security Council.
Lula – without directly mentioning or condemning Israel, as he has done several times following the October 7 terrorist attack — described the situation in Gaza and the West Bank as “one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent history, which is now spreading dangerously into Lebanon.”
“What began as a terrorist action by fanatics against innocent Israeli civilians has become a collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people,” Lula said. “There are more than 40,000 fatal victims, mostly women and children.”
The 40,000 death toll comes from the “Gaza Health Ministry,” a Hamas-controlled entity.
“The right to defense has become the right to revenge, which prevents an agreement for the release of hostages and postpones the ceasefire,” he claimed.
On the purported climate change crisis, Lula declared, “in times of increasing polarization, expressions like ‘deglobalization’ have become commonplace.”
It is “impossible to ‘deplanetize’ our common life,” he stated, adding, “we are doomed to the interdependence of climate change.”
“The planet is no longer waiting to demand payment from the next generation and is fed up with unfulfilled climate agreements,” Lula said. “It is tired of neglected carbon reduction targets and financial aid to poor countries that does not arrive. Denialism succumbs to evidence of global warming.”
The Brazilian president referred to the massive floods in southern Brazil this year and the ongoing and record-breaking fires in the Amazon Rainforest. Leftist environmentalists, activists, and celebrities widely denounced such fires during the administration of Lula’s predecessor, conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, but have largely ignored them under Lula’s administration despite the situation being much more dire.
Lula claimed that his “government does not outsource responsibilities nor abdicate its sovereignty” in the matter of forest fires, claiming that his administration has reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 50 percent in 2023 and will “eradicate it” by 2030.
Lula also appeared to defend widespread censorship of conservative voices in his country – which peaked with a ban on the social media site Twitter in August, by referring to it as necessary for “the defense of democracy.” Twitter, also known as “X,” is expected to soon return to Brazil after owner Elon Musk greenlit censorship concessions to the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil’s top court.
“The defense of democracy implies permanent action against extremist, messianic and totalitarian attacks, which spread hatred, intolerance and resentment,” he claimed, adopting a dramatically different tone than when condemning Israel’s campaign against terrorist massacres by Hamas.
“Brazilians will continue to defeat those who try to undermine institutions and put them at the service of reactionary interests,” Lula said. “In a globalized world, it makes no sense to resort to false patriots and isolationists.”
The Brazilian president claimed that the future of the region depends “above all, on building a sustainable, efficient, inclusive State that confronts all forms of discrimination.”
Governments, he added, should “not [be] intimidated by individuals, corporations or digital platforms that consider themselves above the law” – in an apparent reference to the developing situation with Twitter.
Lula also made calls for international “global taxation standards” as the “super-rich pay proportionally much less tax than the working class.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
