Russia’s president has apologized to the Israeli PM over controversial remarks made by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Vladimir Putin has issued an apology to Naftali Bennett for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements during phone talks on Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has said. Lavrov made the controversial remarks over the weekend, suggesting that Adolf Hitler may have had Jewish ancestry and that some of the “most ardent” anti-Semites are Jews themselves.
“The Prime Minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” the PM’s office said.
Although the Kremlin’s press release did not include the apology, the report stated that the leaders had discussed the significance of Victory Day celebrations. “for the people of both countries, who carefully preserve the historical truth about the events of those years and honour the memory of all the fallen, including the victims of the Holocaust.”
“The President of Russia recalled that of the six million Jews tortured in ghettoes and death camps and killed by the Nazis during punitive operations, 40 percent were Soviet citizens,”The Kremlin’s press service reported the following: “In turn, Naftali Bennett highlighted the Red Army’s decisive contribution to Victory over Nazism.”
The international controversy was sparked by Russia’s top diplomat on Sunday as he spoke to Italy’s Mediaset media company. Lavrov said that they had confirmed the. “denazification”The main goal of the current military operation against Ukraine is to protect Ukraine. A reporter then mentioned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was Jewish, prompting Lavrov’s controversial remarks. A diplomat suggested Hitler. “had Jewish blood in him,”Add that “wise Jewish people say the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”
The scandal caused a diplomatic spat between Israel and Russia before it was reportedly resolved at the highest level. Lavrov’s Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, strongly condemned the remarks, demanding an apology.
“Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks are both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error,”Lapid declared. “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.”
Lapid’s statement prompted a response from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which brought up “tragic examples of cooperation between Jews and Nazis” during the Holocaust, mentioning, among other things, the so-called ‘Judenrats’ – Jewish councils established in ghettos that reported to Nazis. The ministry also noted that the Jewish ancestry in any president is not a guarantee against neo-Nazis rising to power.
“[Zelensky] hides behind his ancestry himself and covers with it real neo-Nazis, spiritual and blood heirs of the executioners of his own people,”It was noted by the ministry. “The Jewish ancestry of a president is not a guarantee of protection from rampant neo-Nazism in a country.”
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