Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko made antisemitic statements during a government meeting over the weekend, Ynet reported.
Referring to a corruption case involving a former aide, he said: “There are 36 people on the list. Sorry, I don’t consider myself antisemitic but more than half of them are Jewish. Do they have a special, privileged role, that they steal and don’t think about their future? Do they have privileges? All people living in Belarus should be equal: Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Poles,”
His comments were broadcast on Belarus 1, the state television channel.
In 2007, Lukashenko, who has been dubbed “the last dictator in Europe,” said that the Jews turned the city of Bobruisk into a “pig sty” and that “it was founded as a Jewish city and you know how Jews treat the place they live in.” In July 2021, he said that the “whole world bows” to the Jews after the Holocaust. In December 2023, he said: “Armenians are smart people. There is not even one Jew there.”
In the wake of the report, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “the words of the President of Belarus are unacceptable, outrageous and sound like definite antisemitic comments. The Deputy Director for Eurasia and the Western Balkans at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuval Fox, contacted the Belarusian ambassador in Israel following the statement and protested his words.”
Belarus’ President-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya stated: “Lukashenko’s regime is the true source of corruption, not the Jewish community. Such hateful rhetoric is dangerous and must be unequivocally condemned.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Yet again, during Covid, when thousands of Yiden were stuck at the borders near his country, nobody came to help besides for him.
No Jewish MK, no Israeli politicians. Nobody. Besides for this so-called “Jew-Hater”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko only says what Russian President Vladmir Putin permits him to say, and he only does what Vladmir Putin permits him to do.
Therefore, I suspect that Vladmir Putin told the Belarusian President to make public remarks that attack Jews, to appease Russia’s Iranian allies.
But Vladmir Putin did not make the anti-Jewish remarks himself, to maintain his own personal Plausible Deniability.
So says one of Putins best buddies 🤔