Brazil withdraws from International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, joins ICC genocide case against Israel

Late last week, Brazil officially withdrew from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and announced it would join the case brought by South Africa in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide.

While Brazil has not released an official statement regarding its withdrawal from the IHRA, it publicly announced the country’s decision to join the ICJ case.

“The Brazilian government announces that it is in the final stages of submitting a formal intervention in the ongoing case at the International Court of Justice, brought by South Africa under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” read the Friday statement.

“The Brazilian government expresses deep indignation at the recurring episodes of violence against the civilian population in the State of Palestine, not limited to the Gaza Strip but extending to the West Bank.”

After news broke that Brazil was withdrawing from the IHRA and joining the ICJ case, Israel’s Foreign Ministry offered a public condemnation of the decisions in a post on 𝕏.

“Brazil’s decision to join the legal offensive against Israel at the ICJ while withdrawing from the IHRA, is a demonstration of a profound moral failure,” it said.

“At a time when Israel is fighting for its very existence, turning against the Jewish state and abandoning the global consensus against antisemitism is both reckless and shameful.”

Founded in 1998, the IHRA describes itself as “an intergovernmental organization with 35 Member Countries and 8 Observer Countries” that “unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance and promote Holocaust education, remembrance, and research worldwide.”

Brazil joined the IHRA in 2021 as an observer member.

The decision to join the IHRA was made during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing leader who is vocally pro-Israel.

Since socialist politician Lula da Silva became the Brazilian president in 2023, Brazil’s relationship with Israel has shifted significantly.

Just weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack (which he also condemned), Lula labeled Israel’s response as being “a genocide.”

“It’s not a war, it’s a genocide that has killed nearly 2,000 children who have nothing to do with this war, they are victims of this war,” he stated.

“And frankly, I don’t know how a human being is capable of war knowing that the result of that war is the death of innocent children.”

In January of this year, an IDF soldier on vacation in Brazil fled the country after the Brazilian Federal Court issued a warrant for his arrest, citing alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The Brazilian Federal Police, however, later “filed a request to the Federal Court to reconsider a Sunday arrest warrant for [the] visiting IDF reservist,” according to a report from The Jerusalem Post.