Israel has reacted with fury after Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood”, when trying to justify the invasion of Ukraine .
Sergei Lavrov (pictured top left) made the comments to try to justify Vladimir Putin’s portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” country despite the fact that its president, Volodimir Zelenskyy (pictured top right) is Jewish.
Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on Italian TV programme Zona Bianca on Sunday, May 1, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.
Nazi Germany ruled by Adolph Hitler murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War Two.
When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish,Lavrov said:
“So what if Zelensky is Jewish?”
“The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” adding that “some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.”
Israel has reacted with fury calling Lavrov’s comments as ‘unforgivable’.
Israel then summmoned Russia’s ambassador and asked for an ‘apology’.
Lavrov’s statement was met with outrage across Israel’s political spectrum.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: “Such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility.
“No war today is the Holocaust or is like the Holocaust.”
Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid reacted angrily, calling Mr Lavrov’s words “unforgivable” on his Twitter account.
Israeli officials have also demanded an apology from Russia for the remarks.
“His words are untrue and their intentions are wrong,” said the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett. “Using the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, called Lavrov’s statement “antisemitic” and said that it is “further evidence that Russia is the legal successor of Nazi ideology”.
“Trying to rewrite history, Moscow is simply looking for arguments to justify the mass murders of Ukrainians,” he wrote.
Lavrov was also condemned by the head of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Dani Dayan.
“Most of his remarks are absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of any condemnation,” he tweeted. “Lavrov deals with the reversal of the Holocaust: turning the victims into criminals, based on the promotion of a completely unfounded claim that Hitler was of Jewish descent.”
In recent months, the Israeli government has faced some criticism for not taking a tough enough line with President Putin but the recent comments from Russia might change Israel’s stance.
For decades there have been unproven claims that Hitler’s unidentified paternal grandfather was Jewish, after an assertion by Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank.
In his memoir, published in 1953, Frank said he had been instructed by Hitler to investigate rumours that he had Jewish ancestry. Frank said he uncovered evidence that Hitler’s grandfather was indeed Jewish – but the claim has never been corroborated by historians.