The Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapidhas condemned the “serious statements” by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrovwho stated that, like the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Adolf Hilter “also had Jewish origins”.
Following this controversial statement, the head of Israeli diplomacy summoned the ambassador of Russia in Israel “for a clarification meeting,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Foreign Minister Lavrov’s comments are a unforgivable and outrageous statement, as well as a terrible historical mistake,” Lapid lamented. He added, “Jews did not commit suicide in the Holocaust. The lowest level of anti-Jewish racism is accusing Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.”
In an interview yesterday Italian channel Rete4the first in a European medium since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, Lavrov insisted on the infiltration of supposedly neo-Nazi sectors in Ukrainian institutions. When warned about Zelensky’s Jewish roots, Lavrov replied that Hitler “also had Jewish origins”.
Ukraine threatened by “nazification”
According to him russian foreign ministerMoscow does not seek a change of regime in Ukraine, and assured that the war unleashed with its invasion wants to “guarantee the security of the population of the east”, which it considered “threatened by militarization and Nazification”.
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Since the outbreak of the conflict, although he condemned the invasion, Israel it has maintained a rather moderate stance towards Russia due to its strategic alliance in the Middle East, where the Jewish state coordinates with Moscow to attack pro-Iranian positions in Syria.
In turn, it has not applied sanctions on Russia nor has it delivered weapons to Ukraine, despite the fact that it did send humanitarian aid, welcomed Ukrainian refugees and also the Ukrainian population of Jewish origin with the right to Israeli citizenship.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.