Israel Rebukes Belarus Envoy After President’s Antisemitic Remarks

At the direction of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Foreign Ministry Director-General Eden Bar Tal today (Wednesday) summoned Belarus’s ambassador to Israel, Yuri Yaroshevich, for an urgent reprimand meeting. The move came as a sharp protest against the shocking remarks made yesterday by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

In an interview he gave yesterday to the English-language channel "Al Arabiya," the president of Belarus claimed that "Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip have seriously damaged its international standing. Israel has inflicted widespread harm on the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. What Holocaust can the Israelis talk about? They themselves have killed so many people, women, and children."

Bar Tal made clear to the Belarusian ambassador that "the outrageous and antisemitic statements by the president of Belarus, who accused the ‘Jewish lobby’ and harmed the memory of the Holocaust with false accusations against the actions of the IDF against terror, are vile and unacceptable remarks."

"Israel firmly rejects the comparison between the horrors of the Holocaust, which also took place on Belarusian soil, and Israel’s just war against jihadist terror. Israel strongly condemns the despicable antisemitic conspiracies about a ‘Jewish lobby.’ This is disgraceful language that should disappear from the world."