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Israeli foreign minister condemns Lukashenka’s Babruysk remarks

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni "strongly condemned" the "harsh anti-Semitic remarks" made by Alyaksandr Lukashenka last week, the ministry said in a Thursday statement. However, the ministry’s spokesman denied reports that Israel had recalled its ambassador to Minsk, Zeev Ben Arie, saying that the ministry had summoned the Belarusian ambassador to "be advised of the strong condemnation."

While speaking to a group of Russian provincial reporters in Minsk on October 12, the Belarusian leader insisted that Jewish residents had turned Babruysk, a city of 226,000 residents in the Mahilyow region, into a “sty.” “If you were in Babruysk, you saw in what condition the city was. Entering it was a fearful experience! It was a sty! This was mainly a Jewish city. Well, you know how Jews treat the place where they’re living. Look at Israel, I’ve been there,” he said. He also called for Jews "with money" to return to live in the city.

In an interview with BelaPAN, Ambassador Zeev Ben Arie said that the remarks were reminiscent of “the anti-Semitic myth depicting Jews as untidy, dirty, smelling people.” “There’s an impression that Babruysk was an independent Jewish place with its own budget rather than one of Belarusian cities where the responsibility and funds for its cleanup and landscaping were in the hands of authorities,” he stressed.

The diplomat said he wished that “municipal and social services” in Belarus would one day match Israel’s level, “although the president saw untrimmed grass somewhere.”