“Sorry, I don’t consider myself an anti-Semite, but…”
Lukashenka commented on a corruption criminal case involving his aide and head of the Belarusian Ministry of Agriculture Igor Barillo. Lukashenko said that more than half of the 36 people involved in the corruption are Jewish and wondered “if they have special privileges.”
“There are 36 people on the list here involved in corruption. I’m sorry, I don’t consider myself anti-Semitic, but more than half of them are Jews. Do they have a special, privileged role, that they steal and don’t think about their future? Do they have privileges? All people living in Belarus should be equal. Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles,” said the dictator.
Political analyst Dmitri Bolkunets regarded Lukashenko’s words as an anti-Semitic attack and called for a reaction from official Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lukashenko’s remarks “unacceptable and outrageous,” noting that they “sound like blatant anti-Semitic comments.”
Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, also condemned Lukashenko’s words, saying that “when all else fails, autocrats usually resort to anti-Semitism.”
“This is unacceptable and must be condemned!” he added.
