Recent anti-Semitic statements by MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis incite ethnic tensions and make Jewish people feel insecure, say Lithuania’s Jewish community representatives.
“The Jewish (Litvak) Community believes that the MP’s actions deliberately provoke national discord through means like the distortion of historical memory and the continuation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which were disseminated by the Russian tsar’s Okhranka,” the Jewish Community of Lithuania said in a statement on Wednesday.
Last week, Žemaitaitis posted several anti-Semitic statements on Facebook, blaming Jews for the deportations and killings of Lithuanians during World War Two. He also criticised Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s visit to Israel.
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In response, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a pre-trial investigation over hate speech.
“This wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric is causing a feeling of humiliation and insecurity among members of the Jewish (Litvak) Community in Lithuania. If the MP continues his activities and pools his followers around him, Jewish people in Lithuania will not be able to feel safe in their own homeland, a democratic European country,” the community said.
The government should take active steps to prevent all forms of anti-Semitism in Lithuania, it added.
“By the way, the Russian press has already seized on this situation and used it to its advantage, with articles appearing abroad under the headlines ‘Russian media publishes declassified documents on the Holocaust’ and ‘Russia has published new documents claiming that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were heavily involved in the mass killings of Jews during the Holocaust’,” the statement reads.
Žemaitaitis’ statements have been condemned by President Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
For her part, Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen has turned to the parliamentary Commission on Ethics and Procedures to look into Žemaitaitis’ statements.
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