Is the Lukashenko regime in Belarus once again using the Holocaust for its political purposes?
If you look at the Belarusian embassy announcement in Tel Aviv, the answer is yes.
The embassy yesterday (Thursday) issued an official summary announcement regarding a meeting held by Ambassador Yevgeny Vorobiov with the head of the Eurasia Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yaakov Livna.
According to the announcement, "The parties discussed the current state of Belarus-Israel relations and its future, and exchanged ideas regarding possible events that may take place on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Minsk (next year)."
So far there has been nothing unusual given Israel's - which in itself is controversial - attitude towards the Lukashenko regime, but the embassy statement also included the following paragraph: .
There were those in Israel who raised an eyebrow at these things.
Demonstration in front of the Belarusian Embassy / Photo: Boris Sukhodrev,
Although the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the meeting itself did take place, they noted that "there was nothing special about it - this is a temporary meeting between the ambassador and the director of the department," the ministry said.
In response to a question about what we will discuss in it, it was stated: "Preservation of the memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism in Belarus."
And this is the kind of case in which they do not hear at all, meaning that no joint events to mark the establishment of the relationship were discussed at the meeting, let alone "joint events to mark the Holocaust and the genocide of the Belarusian people."
Alexander Friedman / Photo: Courtesy of the person photographed,
The Belarusian embassy's announcement is strange because Israel is highly sensitive to the use of the Holocaust. Only a month and a half ago, Ambassador Vorobiov was summoned for a clarification call at the Foreign Ministry because of dictator Lukashenko's remarks about the Jews and the memory of the Holocaust. "The crimes of the Nazis on Belarusian soil are similar to the Belarusian Holocaust, to the Holocaust of the Belarusian people," Lukashenko said in a speech in Minsk, adding that "the Jews have succeeded in proving their holocaust and the whole world adores them." They are even afraid to say a word to them out of place. "The Foreign Ministry then condemned the statement and told Ambassador Vorobiov that Lukashenko's words were not acceptable.
In recent months, the Lukashenko regime has stepped up its appeal to re-legitimize its ongoing presidency despite the election loss. In this context, Lukashenko presents Western sanctions as a direct continuation of Nazi acts, and the Holocaust plays a growing role in his rhetoric. For example, the Belarusian national portal for education offers lesson plans for the coming school year in which it is recommended to talk to ninth-graders about the "Holocaust of the Belarusian people", using the explicit foreign term (Holocaust).
"Lukashenko's goal is simple: to put the Belarusians on a par with the Jews and say that the Belarusians suffered like the Jews," historian Dr. Alexander Friedman of Humboldt University in Berlin, who specializes in Eastern European history and the Holocaust, told Israel Today. And comprehensive in the extermination of the Belarusians as it was towards the Jews. As a Jew, you had no chance of surviving. To murder a Jew it was enough that the person was a Jew. In the case of the Belarusians, from the beginning they did not pursue a policy of eliminating Belarusians as Belarusians. For Belarus to be destroyed, there had to be something else: a Belarusian who opposes the occupation, a mentally ill, a Soviet POW or one who saved Jews, for example. Later, during the war, the Nazis began a policy of punishment. It happened later. In 1941 they had no headquarters to come and destroy the entire Belarusian population, as happened with the Jews. It was a different policy, criminal and vicious, but different. "According to Friedman,"Lukashenko is trying to simplify Nazi politics. "True, Belarusians were murdered in huge numbers, but his goal is to show that Belarusians had the same fate as Jews, which is not true in terms of historical truth."
On the contrary, Lukashenko also often talks about the three million Belarusians who were murdered in the Holocaust.
But every third person among them was a Jew.
Therefore, says Friedman, "Lukashenko's project also has a covert anti-Jewish dimension. It takes the Jewish victims, who were murdered because they were Jews, and turns them into Belarusians, thus already dwarfing the Holocaust."
"Israel Today" contacted the Belarusian embassy.
Her response will be published when received.
