Alexander Lukashenko has compared Israel’s conduct in the Palestinian enclave to the Holocaust
Israel has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of anti-Semitism after he compared its actions in Gaza to the horrors of the Holocaust.
In a recent interview with Al Arabiya, Lukashenko condemned Israel’s destruction of Gaza and said West Jerusalem should be more careful, given the level of global outrage over its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
“They have already received such a rating in the world community that it could hardly get any worse after bombing Gaza,” he said. “Many have even looked back into history: ‘What Holocaust? What Holocaust can the Israelis talk about when they have killed so many people, first of all women and children?’”
He claimed that Gaza had been “wiped off the face of the Earth” and condemned what he described as plans to build “some kind of resort” on the bones of the Palestinian people.
Lukashenko was apparently referring to proposals to empty Gaza of Palestinians and turn the devastated enclave into a luxury waterfront project, an idea first floated by US President Donald Trump and praised as “revolutionary” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced Lukashenko’s remarks, calling them “unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”
“Any comparison between the Holocaust of the Jewish people and Israel’s just war against terrorism must be unequivocally rejected,” the ministry said on X, accusing Lukashenko of reviving “vile, outdated anti-Semitic conspiracies.”
Minsk has yet to respond to Israel’s comments, but Lukashenko has repeatedly denied being an anti-Semite in the past, while continuing to portray Israel’s war in Gaza as an atrocity.
The exchange comes as Israel faces mounting international accusations of genocide over its military campaign in Gaza. The war began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 left approximately 1,200 people dead.
Israel’s response has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, with women and children making up around half of the fatalities.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, nearly everyone living there has been displaced, and aid agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of using starvation, water shortages and medical collapse as weapons against civilians. Israel has denied targeting locals and says its campaign is aimed at Hamas.
The International Court of Justice has also been hearing a genocide case against Israel, while a growing number of governments, UN experts and human rights groups have accused West Jerusalem of pursuing policies intended to make Palestinian life in Gaza impossible.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed such accusations as anti-Semitic or as political attacks on its right to self-defense.
