Prime Minister Naftali Bennett today (Monday) for the first time referred to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks that "Hitler had Jewish blood," and sharply condemned the statement.
"I take Lavrov's statement seriously, his words are not true and their purpose is invalid.
Bennett added that "such lies are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history committed against them, thus freeing the responsibility from the oppressors of Israel."
The prime minister reiterated his statement that "no war today is the Holocaust and is not similar to the Holocaust," said after Ukrainian officials including President Zalansky tried to create a wave between the current war and Nazi crimes in World War II.
The implicit repetition of the reprimand in the Ukrainians was apparently intended to soften slightly the impression of Bennett's harsh remarks in response to Lavrov's statement.
"The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a tool for political blows must be stopped immediately," the prime minister concluded.
As you may recall, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last night in an interview with Italian television that the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky is a Jew does not mean that there are no Nazi elements in Ukraine.
According to a quote from the Reuters news agency, Lavrov said that he believed "that Hitler also had Jewish blood."
Lavrov noted that Zalansky could promote peace between Russia and Ukraine if he stopped giving "criminal" instructions to his Nazi soldiers.
This is the prime minister's first condemnation of Russia since the outbreak of the war.
To date, the most senior Israeli official to condemn the Russians has been Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
In his remarks in recent weeks, Lapid has repeatedly condemned the very Russian invasion of Ukraine, and even called the massacre of civilians in the town of Bocha a "war crime."
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