Lula visits Holocaust Museum, meets with Palestinians

Jerusalem, Mar 16 (EFE).- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva toured Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum on Tuesday and traveled to the West Bank city of Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian leaders.

"Humanity has to repeat it every day as many times as is necessary: never again, never again, never again," Lula said at the museum.

Along with his wife, Marisa Leticia, and wearing the traditional Jewish skullcap, the Brazilian leader took a tour of the Yad Vashem center, an obligatory stop for foreign dignitaries who visit Israel.

Afterwards, he participated in an official ceremony accompanied by Israeli President Shimon Peres and the rabbi of the Yad Vashem Council, Meir Lau.

The center has a concrete roof and on its floor are written the names of the 22 Nazi extermination camps.

Lula lighted a votive flame in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis before and during World War II and placed a floral wreath with the colors of the Brazilian flag.

"I think that the visit to the Holocaust Museum should be almost obligatory for all human beings who want to lead a nation," said Lula, who left the site "with the certainty of what can happen when irrationality takes over human beings."

"All those of us who are fighting for democracy and human rights cannot under any condition allow something like the Holocaust to occur again," he added.

In the afternoon, Lula traveled to Bethlehem, where he met with Palestinian National Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, but he was forced by schedule constraints to cancel a planned visit to the Church of the Nativity.

On Wednesday morning, he is scheduled to travel to Ramallah, site of the PNA headquarters, where he will sign cooperation accords with Abbas before traveling to neighboring Jordan.

The Palestinian group Stop the Wall has taken advantage of Lula's visit to call attention to the commercial and military ties Brazil maintains with Israel, which - in its judgment - legitimize the latter's occupation of Palestinian territory.

"It's unacceptable to forge commercial agreements with a country whose companies benefit intrinsically from the settlements and the occupation," said the group's coordinator, Jamal Juma.

The group is urging Brazil to work for an arms embargo on Israel and the boycott of products made in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.