According to Israeli sources, Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for comments made by his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who claimed that Adolf Hitler might have had “Jewish blood”. This was announced by Bennett’s office after the prime minister had called Putin. However, the Kremlin did not initially confirm the apology.
Bennett accepted Putin’s apology and “thanked him for clarifying his stance on the Jewish people and on commemoration of the Holocaust,” Bennett’s office said.
In an interview with the Italian broadcaster Mediaset that was broadcast last weekend, Lavrov said: “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood.” The statements triggered international outrage. Bennett denounced the statements as “lies” that “accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrible crimes in history” perpetrated against them. Israel’s Foreign Minister Jair Lapid summoned the Russian ambassador.
Against the background of sharp international criticism of Lavrov’s statements, the telephone conversation between Putin and Bennett took place on the occasion of Israel’s 74th Independence Day. In the Kremlin’s summary of the call, however, no apology from Putin was mentioned. Accordingly, the conversation was about the meaning of May 9th as the day of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and about “all the victims” of the Second World War, including “the victims of the Holocaust”.
After the outraged reactions to Lavrov’s statements, Moscow initially followed up: On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of supporting “the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” – President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is Jewish himself. A day later, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that “Israeli mercenaries” were fighting alongside the Azov regiment, which was set up by far-right activists.
After a conversation with his Israeli colleague Lapid on Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated on Twitter that anti-Semitism has a long tradition “among the Russian elites”. He asked Lavrov to apologize publicly.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Israel has tried to maintain good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow. Israel has so far turned down Ukraine’s requests for military assistance, providing protective gear instead. At the same time, Bennett tried to mediate in the conflict and met with Putin in Moscow in early March.
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