Israeli Foreign Ministry Reacts To Lukashenka's Anti-Semitic Statements

The Ambassador of Belarus to Israel was handed a note.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday, June 16, called Lukashenka's remarks made the day before "unacceptable" and "outrageous," adding that they "sound like frank anti-Semitic comments".

On Friday, June 14, Aliaksandr Lukashenka accused the Jewish people of "corruption crimes" in Belarus.

"There are 36 people on the list involved in corruption," he said during the meeting, also mentioning specifically his former assistant and Minister of Agriculture Ihar Bryla. “Sorry, I don't consider myself anti-Semitic, but more than half of them are Jewish. They have a special, privileged role, what do they steal and don't think about their future? Do they have privileges? All peoples living in Belarus should be equal. Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Poles," Lukashenka added.

The head of the Eurasian Bureau of the Ministry, Yuval Fuchs, filed a complaint with the Ambassador of Belarus to Israel on this issue, Katz said.

Belarusian political scientist and blogger Dzmitry Balkunets also addressed the Israeli Embassy about Lukashenka's anti-Semitic statements.

Lukashenka has a history of anti-Semitic statements. In 2017, he accused the Jewish people of turning Babruisk, a historic Belarusian city with deep Jewish roots, into a “pigsty”.

In 2021, he said the world was “on its knees” to the Jewish people because of the Holocaust.

“The Jews managed to make the whole world kneel before them, and no one will dare to raise their voice and deny the Holocaust,” the dictator said at a ceremony dedicated to the “independence day of Belarus” on July 3.

Finally, two months after the Hamas attack on Israel, speaking about Armenia, Lukashenka said that they are an intelligent people, because “there is not a single Jew there.”