The Lithuanian parliament must evaluate MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis’ recent Facebook post, in which he criticised Israel’s policies in the West Bank, according to Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, who called her fellow MP’s statements “casual anti-Semitism”.
“I think the Seimas needs to respond as MP Žemaitaitis often teeters on the brink of hate speech, and this time, it seems to me, the line was crossed. The parliamentary Commission on Ethics and Procedures has probably already received appeals from different political groups regarding Žemaitaitis’ actions and statements,” the speaker told the radio Žinių Radijas on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Žemaitaitis, who is a member of the Freedom and Justice party and sits in the parliament with the mixed group of MPs, posted a news story about a Palestinian school demolished by Israel in the West Bank.
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“It turns out that we have other animals in the world besides Putin, and it’s ISRAEL,” the politician commented in the post. “One is destroying schools with tanks, and the other one is using tractors.”
He added that Israel’s actions “increase the anger and, at the same time, the hatred towards Jews and their nation” and quoted an anti-Semitic rhyme that translates roughly as: “A Jew was climbing a ladder and accidentally fell off. Take a stick, kids, and kill that little Jew.”
“After such events [Israel demolishing Palestinian school], no wonder that there appear sayings like this,” Žemaitaitis commented.
Čmilytė-Nielsen commented that such statements undermine Lithuania’s efforts to fight anti-Semitism.
“Great effort has been made over the last decade to ensure that such examples of casual anti-Semitism do not exist in Lithuania, and, regrettably, what Žemaitaitis is doing, among other things, is trying to bring casual anti-Semitism and hate speech back into use. In my opinion, this is both disgusting and completely inappropriate for a member of the Seimas,” Čmilytė-Nielsen said.
Žemaitaitis’ statement has been slammed by the Israeli, German, US and Dutch ambassadors to Lithuania and several Lithuanian officials.
Meanwhile, the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office has opened a pre-trial investigation into possible hate speech.
Speaking with BNS on Tuesday, Žemaitaitis said that he welcomed the investigation because “it will be an opportunity to show the public how Israel and the Israeli government, like communists, like Bolsheviks, are destroying schools in another country, built with EU money”.
Žemaitaitis said that he did not consider his post to be hate speech and that he would not delete it.
Having funded the construction of the demolished school in the West Bank, the European Union has also criticised Israel’s decision to tear it down. Meanwhile, Israel maintains that the school was built illegally and also cited safety issues.
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