Why Lukashenka’s Anti-Semitism Silenced?

The regime is increasingly trying to explain the protests in the country with a mythical "Jewish conspiracy".

Aliaksandr Lukashenka has ruled Belarus since 1994 and has been called "Europe's last dictator". Now, after the suppression of opposition protests, we can add to his title "bloody dictator" like "anti-Semitic dictator" because people with such crazy ideas have not seized power in European countries since World War II.

After "winning" the last election through mass falsifications, Lukashenka initiated terror against his country and people. During demonstrations, about ten people were killed; hundreds fled abroad and more than 4,000 people were imprisoned for political reasons, including the popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison. The authorities threw him behind bars as soon as they considered him a viable presidential candidate.

One can realise how people hate the dictator by the fact that Tikhanovsky's wife Svetlana, who ran for the presidency instead of her husband, got about 80 per cent of the vote, according to various estimates. At the same trial, Nikolai Statkevich, leader of the Social Democratic Party denied in registration, was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment. Two other bloggers were sentenced to 15 years in prison each.

Lukashenka, who has seized power in the country where Marc Chagall, Isaac Asimov, Chaim Weizmann and Menachem Begin were born, is an infamous anti-Semite. In 2007, he caused worldwide shock by comparing Bobruisk, when "the city was predominantly Jewish", to a pigsty. "You know how Jews treat the place they live in," the ruler explained. In 2015, he ordered the head of his administration to "bring all Jews under control".

In their attacks on Jews, regime propagandists try to explain the mass demonstrations against the tyrant with a mythical "Jewish conspiracy" and attempts by Jews to overthrow the "legitimate government".

A few days ago, Lukashenka outdid himself when an "MP," government spokeswoman Lilia Ananich, introduced a draft law on the "genocide of the Belarusian people" - a bill that many consider, if not a denial, then at least a desecration of the memory of the Shoah.

On the face of it, Jews are a part of the Belarusian people, like Turkmen, Roma, Russians and other citizens of the Soviet Union who were on the territory of Belarus and were murdered by the Nazis there.

The author of the draft law "forgot" that Jews - unlike, for example, Belarusians - were killed solely because of their nationality. But Lukashenka does not say a word about the Shoah in Belarus. Even referring to the Trostenets concentration camp, one of the largest in Europe, where Jews from the Minsk ghetto were murdered, the dictator's representatives do not speak of the Jews but the "Belarusian people".

Lukashenka has no law on property restitution in Belarus, and as long as he is in power there will be none. Contrary to many countries, the property of Jews murdered there will not be returned to anyone. For example, one can try to return an ancient synagogue to the community only if it is no longer used as a public building today.

The dictator uses the Jews (and indirectly Israel) at every opportunity to explain the protests against him. In other words, he is promoting a simple anti-Semitic idea: one should look for the hand of Israel, the Jewish lobby, the Mossad - evil always wears a "Star of David". The title of state propaganda press Alexander Fridman, a Belarusian historian, who could afford to express his opinion freely, as he lives in exile in Germany.

A few days ago, security forces raided the home of an Israeli citizen, programmer Daniel Plashchinsky. It happened when they discovered that he had been visiting Telegram channels deemed "extremist" and corresponded with their editors. To prove his malicious actions, the official Telegram channel of the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption distributed an image of Plashchynsky's Israeli passports (one valid and two old ones) against a background of a red and white flag of the Belarusian opposition. A rifle was placed next to them and the message was clear: Jews are preparing a revolution here.

The Belarusian state TV channel has recently shown a film called "Kill the President". It tells the story of the "Jewish circles" behind the assassination attempt - fictitious - on the life of Aliaksandr Lukashenka and his son. More? State newspaper Belarus Segodnya accompanied a video of refugees trying to cross the border from Belarus into Poland with the sounds of Atikva. After the scandal, the music changed.

In another incident, Alexander Fruman, an Israeli who was on holiday in Minsk, was arrested by security forces for three days, beaten and threatened with "repeated circumcision" although he did not participate in demonstrations. The confiscated passport was never returned to him.

In those days at least two other Israeli citizens were imprisoned. As far as I know, none of them received help from the Israeli mission in Belarus. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, ready to argue with the Polish authorities, sent an ambassador to Belarus to present his credentials to the dictator - an act that was avoided by ambassadors from other Western countries.

The Israeli embassy does not help the Jews of Belarus, who live in the atmosphere of state anti-Semitism, and those who stand in solidarity with them. For example, Zinaida Timashuk, chair of the Association of Belarusian Language Lovers in Slutsk, was arrested for three days and fined about $500 (very much by local standards) for coming with friends to lay flowers at the place where the Nazis destroyed the Jewish ghetto in 1943. What was the fine for? For organising an unauthorised demonstration.

The State of Israel was created, among other things, as a refuge for Jews suffering oppression in various countries. I have Belarusian origins, like many other Israelis. Every day I watch with excitement as a terrified dictator, clinging to his seat with the help of the police, plays the anti-Semitic card.

Although Jewish lives are at stake in this situation, we see and hear no reaction from the Israeli government and Foreign Ministry. Israel stubbornly refuses to join Western countries in condemning the dictator and dictatorship. It is a shame. Perhaps it is better to remember that any attempt to appease anti-Semitic dictators in history has ended badly for the Jews.

Leonid Nevzlin, HaAretz