anti-Semitic: New Member
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Guess who? It is Belarus President, Alexander Lukashenko.
Why?
Belarus president ‘anti-Semitic’
The president of Belarus has been called “anti-Semitic” after he reportedly blamed Jews for turning a town into a “pigsty”.
President Alexander Lukashenko allegedly made the remarks last week after hearing complaints from residents of the eastern town of Bobruisk.
He added that he had been to Israel and seen that “Jewish people do not take care of where they live”.
Israel’s foreign minister condemned the remarks as racist.
“Leaders have a duty to fight anti-Semitism, which rears its ugly head in different places in the world, and not encourage it,” Tzipi Livni said.
Belarusian Jewish groups have warned of growing anti-Semitism in the country.
They are alarmed at what they call the open publication of anti-Semitic brochures and books, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and closure of the republic’s only Jewish university.
[Source: BBC]
[Hat tip: Nas]
According to CIA factbook, Balarus is “Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)” And according to Wikipedia, “Belarus was also about 10% Jewish until World War II, being a major center of European Jewry, but during the war Jews were reduced by war, starvation, and the Holocaust to a tiny minority of about 1% or less.”
If the tiny “pigsty” minority were the Muslims of Belarus, what would have been the reaction of Tzipi Livni? I guess she would have tagged them as extremists, sponsored by Bin Laden, and that the world should declare “War on Terror” there now.
No offense to our Jews cousins, but this is really silly and shows the level of loyalty by this minority to their country, Belarus!
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2 Comments on “anti-Semitic: New Member”
A familiar but alarming theme in the discussion of Belarus, and Alexander Lukashenko has again reared its ugly head. And that theme is alleged anti-Semitism. The story itself arose from a live interview by President Lukashenko on the 12th of October where he discussed the city of Bobruisk (may also be spelled Bobruysk). This city lies in the central/Eastern part of Belarus, and was a part of the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement. As such Bobruisk once had a large and thriving Jewish population. This of course was decimated between 1941 and 1944 under Nazi occupation.
What is clear from this case is that President Lukashenko’s comments have been quoted selectively, and translations vary in accuracy from poor to libellous. Returning to the press conference itself, none of the news sources who have picked up the story are quoting the original ‘full text’ but rather are quoting each other, and the original translation/ edit from the Israeli foreign Ministry. It is completely understandable that the Israelis would be sensitive to any potentially anti-Semitic remarks or sentiments emanating from any head of state, however in this case it is our view that this concern has been exploited. The allegation of anti-Semitism, like that of racism, essentially serves as an accusation of irrationality, and ignorance. Given the role of Jews in the past of Belarus it also implies a not insignificant amount of naivete, and a lack of any historical awareness.
Alexander Lukashenko (despite being belittled as a farm manager) actually holds teaching qualifications in both history and social studies, meaning he is not insensitive to the position of the historical Jewish population of Belarus (additionally Lukashenko has further qualifications in agricultural sciences and economics). The recent claim that he is a “bigot” also does not stand up to examination. In 1999 he promised to “tear the arms off any fascist” in response to anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery. Anti-Semitism is a crime in Belarus, and as noted by Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Gaisenak: “Although few in number cases of anti-Semitism are a source of deep concern and disquiet to us”. He also noted that Jews had been living on the territory of Belarus for over six centuries and were “fully integrated into the life of that society”.
At the 60th meeting of the UN commission on Human Rights in 2004 Belarus jointly tabled a resolution expressing its concern at the rise of neo-nazi and aggressive nationalist organisations. (This resolution was passed despite the USA, Japan and several European countries voting against it). As well as official declarations independent bodies have confirmed the high level of tolerance in Belarus. The Israeli Stephen Roth Institute noted in 2001 that the authorities and Lukashenko himself were “supportive of the Jewish community”. Furthermore several far right newspapers and groups have been shut down by Lukashenko. This act of course being a double-edged sword in that it is often used as an example of the stifling independent media, however to do nothing would see the accusation of official tolerance of racism and anti-Semitism.
In the specific case of the Jewish community in Belarus (which numbers around 28,000) the US Belarus Democracy Act highlighted official targeting of the Jews as a justification for intervention. This came as a shock to the Belarusian government who prided itself on tolerance and the lack of inter-ethnic confrontation. It also came as a surprise to the Chief Rabbi of Belarus who responded by saying he had “no qualms with any aspect of Lukashenko’s rule”. Even the US based organisation that monitors Jewish life and anti-Semitism in the former USSR acknowledged that “Jewish life has rebounded and is flourishing” under Lukashenko. That is not to say that isolated incidents do not occur, and in December 2000 a synagogue in Minsk was the victim of an arson attack. Lukashenko personally visited the site and was quoted as saying “we won’t let anyone harm our Jews”. As to who is behind these acts, it is clear that the more nationalist minded groups are typically prone to xenophobia and anti-Semitism. One group calling itself the ‘White Legion’ was declared illegal by Lukashenko (again to international criticism for harassing Non Government Organisations). For nationalists, who are highly active and visible in the Belarusian opposition movement anti-Semitic acts serve not only there own agenda, but also increase foreign pressure on and scrutiny of Lukashenko. By way of example, not all of the Western financed groups oppose Lukashenko. Some claim to be supportive of the President, whilst endorsing ultra-right wing policies that in reality run contrary to those of Lukashenko. This has ironically led to a few Western neo-Nazi groups actually being supportive of Belarus, which only further highlights the ignorance of anti-Semites and racists.
It is this deliberate and selective interpretation of quotes and the lack of context that allowed the myth to spread that Lukashenko had ‘praised Hitler’ when he most certainly did not. The basis for this claim is a 1995 interview that President Lukashenko gave to the German Handelsblatt newspaper. The actual interview was a discussion about economic policy, and actually contained no reference to Hitler. However when it was ‘translated’ by Russian channel NTV, the story broke that Lukashenko was an admirer of the Nazi leader. The journalist who carried out the original interview, Dr. Markus Zeiner was furious that his interview had been “quoted out of context and with the sequence of comments altered by the Russian media”. Despite Zeiner’s attempts to set the record straight, the Lukashenko/Hitler story still is still carried by respected news agencies such as the BBC.
It would appear that Lukashenko is once more a victim of deliberate mistranslation, and lack of context. Lukashenko complained that Bobruisk a city that used to be a Jewish town “was a pigsty” and in desperate need of repair. It has been claimed by the Jerusalem Post that he said that Jews were wholly responsible for this, but this statement cannot be found in the original broadcast. Nor can the Jerusalem Post’s claim that the Belarusian population “was virulently anti-Semitic for centuries” and that they “collaborated with the Nazis” be substantiated with any serious study of the nation’s history. In fact this claim is just as offensive as Lukashenko’s alleged comments, when it is considered that Belarus lost one in three citizens under Nazi occupation, and raised a partisan movement (including many Jews) that numbered over 300,000 men and women.
Bobruisk it also ought to be remembered is very much a former Jewish town, with the holocaust and emigration to Israel having resulted in only a tiny number of Jewish people living there today. Certainly not enough to warrant criticism for the appearance of the city today. Belarusian ambassador to Israel , Igor Leshchenya commented that the city was “literally saturated by Jewish history” and that this history was preserved and respected. Most significant of all was President Lukashenko’s proposed solution for the dilapidation of Bobruisk, and that was for Jewish people to return to Belarus. This solution would not be proposed by an anti-Semite.
This news story has ‘snowballed’ and typically as it spreads it has moved further away from its source until the facts and context are almost lost. This is certainly no accident and is another example of deliberate misinformation about Belarus, and personal slander of President Lukashenko which simply does not ring true to anyone who has studied his policies and actions from a position of objectivity or impartiality.
The European Jew and Rusian Jew are not semites. They come from the caucus mountains. The original Jews can trace their ancestry to Abraham.
The Jews that live in Israel now are converts to Judism. These are hite people. They come from the Cuacus mountains on southwest asia.
The European Jew and Russian Jew have no genetic relationship to Abraham. As you know the middle eastern Jew is a sephardic Jew and not white.
Yet, the Jew the lives in israel today want you to believe they are semites. They are white. Arabs are semites, Ethiopians, people from Northern Africa are semites. Also to be a semite you mut speak semetic language. Now know that the jews speak hebrew, but they learned this language, it’s no their native tounge. Aramaic, and other semetic languages.