Israel demands apology
Lavrov outraged with Nazi comparison
05/02/2022 11:03 am
“Hitler also had Jewish blood”: This is how Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov tries to legitimize the attack on Ukraine – and thus causes outrage. Israel calls the comments “unforgivable” and “scandalous.” The Russian ambassador must now explain himself in Jerusalem.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has caused outrage in Israel with a Nazi comparison in relation to the Ukraine war. The government in Jerusalem demanded an apology and summoned the Russian ambassador to an interview this Monday.
On Sunday evening on the Italian television channel Rete4, Lavrov repeated the Russian justification for war that Nazis were at work in Ukraine. As a counter-argument, they say: “How can there be a nazification when he (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy) is a Jew? I may be wrong. But Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood. That means nothing at all. The wise Jewish people say that the most fervent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Jair Lapid spoke on Monday of an “unforgivable, scandalous statement, a terrible historical mistake”. “We expect an apology.” Lapid added: “It wasn’t Jews who killed my grandfather, but Nazis.” He recommended Lavrov to look in a history book. “The Ukrainians are not Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis. Only they carried out the systematic extermination of the Jews.”
The director of the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, Dani Dayan, called Lavrov’s statements “absurd, delusional, dangerous and despicable”. Israel has traditionally had good relations with both Russia and Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian attack, the government has been trying to mediate.