The Social Democrat’s decision to invite a party led by the controversial politician Remigijus Žemaitaitis has attracted local and international criticism due to his statements last year about Israel and Jews.
Žemaitaitis, the leader of the Dawn of the Nemunas party, has been accused of anti-Semitism, something that the politician has denied.
Anti-Semitism charges against him are centred around a handful of statements he made in May and June 2023 about Israel and Jews. The Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, appointed a special commission in autumn 2023 to assess them.
The commission then turned to the Constitutional Court to give a ruling on whether Žemaitaitis’ statements constituted a serious violation of his oath of office, thus giving grounds for impeachment.
The commission quoted five public statements by Žemaitaitis, most of them made on social media.
On May 8, 2023, he posted on Facebook a comment on a news story about Israel having demolished an EU-funded school in the West Bank: “Apparently, there are animals in this world besides Putin, Israel. […] One has to state that this school was built thanks to EU funding. After such events, no wonder there appear sayings like this: A Jew was climbing the ladder and accidentally fell off; take a stick, kids, and kill that little Jew [this is a well-known Lithuanian anti-Semitic rhyme]. What else must happen for Israel to realise that such provocations and such actions only stir more anger and hatred against Jews and their people.”
On May 8, 2023, he continued in another Facebook post: “Perhaps next time Israel will drop a bomb on a Palestinian hospital with a note: we bombed out of fear that they will attack us. […] I want to give you, dear Israeli Jews, a chance to apologise to Palestine and the EU for your nasty little actions in a foreign country. And let me repeat myself: ‘After such events, no wonder there appear sayings like this: A Jew was climbing the ladder and accidentally fell off; take a stick, kids, and kill that little Jew.’”
On May 9, 2023, Žemaitaitis gave a comment to LRT.lt about the controversy caused by his Facebook posts and the reaction from the Israeli ambassador demanding an apology: “One barbarian lives in Russia and now, it turns out, [other] barbarians are Israel. […] If the communist ambassador is so regretful and demanding of an apology, I hope this communist ambassador will publicly apologise to the Palestinian people, Palestinian children for a destroyed school that was built on my and your money, because the money came from the European Union.”
On June 13, 2023, Žemaitaitis posted on Facebook a comment on Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s visit to Israel: “Our Prime Minister Šimonytė could not have put it any nastier while in Israel last weekend: [quotes a headline] ‘Prime Minister met with Israeli President: our historical ties and friendship between our countries are what we are proud of.’ It’s nasty for Šimonytė to say such nonsense when on June 3, 1944, Lithuania’s Jews alongside the Russians killed the village of Pirčiupiai and its people. […] How much longer will our politicians be kneeling to the Jews who killed our compatriots, contributed to the surveillance, torture of Lithuanians and the destruction of our state. […] There was a holocaust of Jews, but also an even bigger holocaust of Lithuanians in Lithuania!”
The Pirčiupiai village massacre to which Žemaitaitis is referring was in fact perpetrated by German SS men as a retaliation for an assault by Soviet partisans. Žemaitaitis later said he made a mistake and meant another event.
On June 14, 2023, when Lithuania was commemorating the start of the 1941 Soviet deportations, Žemaitaitis posted on Facebook: “The Lithuanian people must never forget the Jews and the Russians who very actively contributed to the destruction of our nation.”
The Constitutional Court ruled last April that Žemaitaitis’ statements violated articles in the constitution on hate speech and discrimination on the basis of nationality. According to the court, this was a gross violation of the constitution and a breach of his oath as a parliament member.
Žemaitaitis then resigned from the Seimas, arguably in order to avoid impeachment which would have barred him from running for elected office. There is still an ongoing criminal investigation over his statements.
Žemaitaitis himself has rejected charges of anti-Semitism, insisting he was criticising the Israeli government and not Jews as a people.
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