Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that he accepted an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Holocaust remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. A statement issued by the Israel government said that both the leaders talked over the phone regarding the issue.
‘The Prime Minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying the President’s attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust’, said the statement issued by Israel government.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview given to an Italian news channel said that Russia attacked Ukraine to ‘denazify’ the country. He also claimed that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even though its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. ‘In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish’, said Sergey Lavrov.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid came down heavily on the Russian minister over his remarks. ‘The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for anti-Semitism’, said Yair Lapid. Yair Lapid is the son of a Holocaust survivor. Israel government had earlier summoned the Russian ambassador.
Israel gained independence in the wake of the Holocaust and has served as a refuge for the Jews. The Holocaust and its remembrance remain central to Israel’s national identity and the country marked its annual Holocaust memorial day last week. The Nazis and their collaborators killed 6 million Jews during World War II.
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