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On May 2, Israel slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for claiming Adolf Hitler had Jewish ancestors, calling it an "unforgivable" lie that debased the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust.
Several Western leaders condemned the foreign minister's remarks, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of forgetting the lessons of World War II.
The Israeli foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador and demanded an apology, indicating a severe deterioration in relations with Moscow.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said:
"Such lies are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history that were committed against them. The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people for political purposes must stop immediately."
On Italian television on May 1, Lavrov was asked why Russia saw the need to "denazify" Ukraine since the country's own president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was Jewish.
Speaking through an Italian interpreter, Lavrov told Rete 4 channel:
"When they say 'What sort of nazification is this if we are Jews', well I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing. For a long time now we've been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves."
In his nightly video message, Zelenskiy highlighted that Moscow has been deafeningly quiet since Sergey Lavrov's remarks.
"This means that the Russian leadership has forgotten all the lessons of World War Two. Or perhaps they have never learned those lessons."
All about Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister
Born on March 21, 1950 in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov was initially named Sergey Kalantaryan, but he later changed it in favor of Lavrova, his Russian mother’s surname.
In his 20s, he was chosen for the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a prestigious diplomatic finishing school in the heart of Russia. He is fluent in English, French, Sinhala from Sri Lanka, and Dhivehi, the Maldives' national language.
Sergey Lavrov is a faultless technocrat with an incredible memory. At 32, he moved to New York as a senior advisor to the USSR's UN mission. By the age of 42, he'd been named deputy foreign minister by Andrey Kozyrev, Russia's sole pro-Western foreign minister.
Speaking about Lavrov's recent comments, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, whose grandfather was killed in the Holocaust, called accusing Jews of anti-Semitism "the basest level of racism." He denied Sergey Lavrov's claim that pro-Nazi groups controlled the Ukrainian government and military.
He told YNet:
"The Ukrainians aren't Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis and only they dealt with the systematic destruction of the Jewish people."
Following the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February, Israel reaffirmed its support for the country. However, in order to avoid hurting relations with Russia, a power broker in neighboring Syria, it avoided public criticism of Moscow at first and has not imposed official sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
However, ties have since been on the path of a slow deterioration, with Lapid accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine last month.
