JERUSALEM – Israeli officials reacted angrily on Monday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukrainian Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky of backing Nazism and saying “he also blamed Hitler.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Russia’s ambassador to Israel would be formally summoned to explain the comments, which Lapid described as “unforgivable and outrageous.” He said Israel would apologize to the Russian government for using a discredited anti-Semitic trophy: that Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Third Reich and the perpetrator of the Holocaust, was of Jewish descent. In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Lavrov’s words “are untrue and his intentions are wrong.” “The purpose of such lies is to accuse the Jews themselves of the most heinous crimes in history committed against them, and thus to absolve Israel’s enemies of responsibility,” he said. “The use of the Holocaust by the Jewish people as a political tool must stop immediately.” Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on Italian television on Sunday as he tried to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was forced to launch a “special military operation” in February, in part because he claimed Ukraine was dominated by neo-Nazis. Pressing to reconcile these allegations of “denationalization” with Zelensky’s Jewish identity, Lavrov relinquished its significance. “Well, if Zelensky is a Jew,” Lavrov said, according to a Russian translation of his statement. “The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. “I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood.” “Some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews,” Lavrov said. The Israeli Holocaust Museum is so dependent on a Russian oligarch who wants to protect him from sanctions Anger over Lavrov’s comments quickly spread throughout Israel. Dani Dayan, president of Yad Vashem, Israel’s main museum and Holocaust research center, called them “dangerous” and “a serious blow to the victims of true Nazism.” Israeli Deputy Economy and Industry Minister Yair Golan said in a radio interview on Monday that Lavrov’s statements reflected “what the Russian regime really is – a violent regime that does not hesitate to wipe out its opponents from within, invade a foreign country and invade to accuse him of reviving Nazism. “ In Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba wrote on Twitter that Lavrov’s words “prove that Russia today is full of hatred of other nations.” . Foreign Minister Lavrov’s statements are at the same time an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical mistake. Jews did not commit suicide in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism. – Yair Lapid🟠 (@yairlapid) May 2, 2022 Lavrov’s comments seemed to harden Israel’s response to the Russian invasion, which was mixed and evolving during the war. Jerusalem initially denounced the fighting, but moderated its outspoken criticism of Russia over concerns about its wider security relationship with Moscow. Israel is relying on Russian forces to allow it to carry out unacknowledged airstrikes against Iranian-backed fighters inside Syria, according to military analysts here. Bennett, who had good relations with both Putin and Zelensky, also said he wanted to maintain a degree of neutrality in order to mediate between them, a role he played in the first weeks of the conflict. But as fighting in Ukraine continues and the number of civilian casualties rises, Israel has increasingly condemned Russia. Lapid in particular was relentless in his criticism. In April, he accused Russia of war crimes following revelations of atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Butsa. “A large and powerful country has invaded a smaller neighbor without any excuse. “Once again, the ground is soaked with the blood of innocent citizens,” Lapidt said during a public appearance in Greece. Moscow expressed outrage later in April after Lapid voted in the United Nations to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Russia has said it was trying to divert attention from the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Russian government has not commented directly on Israel’s request for an apology for Lavrov’s statements.
