Israel condemns Russian foreign minister’s comments as antisemitic.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, condemned on Monday a claim by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, that Jews were “the biggest antisemites.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel to explain Mr. Lavrov’s remarks, and the Israeli foreign minister demanded an apology.

The backlash followed an interview Mr. Lavrov gave on Sunday to an Italian journalist who asked him why Russia claimed to be “denazifying” Ukraine when the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was Jewish. Mr. Lavrov replied that he thought Hitler himself had Jewish roots, a claim dismissed by historians, and added, “For a long time now we’ve been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest antisemites are the Jews themselves.”

Mr. Bennett said that he viewed Mr. Lavrov’s remarks with the “utmost severity,” saying that the comments were “untrue and their intentions are wrong.” Read more

@nytimes