On Sunday evening, Lavrov repeated the Russian justification for war that Nazis were at work in Ukraine. He suggested that Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots. The government in Jerusalem demands an apology and summons the Russian ambassador.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lawrow 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 on Monday. On Sunday evening on Italian television, Lavrov repeated the Russian justification for war, that Nazis were at work in Ukraine, and suggested that Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots.
As a counter-argument to the Russian war justification for denazification, the following is said: “How can there be a nazification when he (the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj) is a Jew? I can 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.”
Lavrov referred to the thesis, rejected by well-known historians, according to which the unknown father of Hitler’s illegitimate father was said to have been a Jewish merchant from Graz.
“We expect an apology”
Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid spoke on Monday of an “unforgivable, scandalous statement, a terrible historical error”. “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.
(APA/dpa)