Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has challenged the Community definition of anti-Semitism, according to which it is impossible to be both Jewish and anti-Semitic.

In an interview on Italian television, he commented:

“Zelensky says that they (the Ukraininan government) cannot be Nazis, since he is Jewish; maybe I’m mistaken, but Hitler had Jewish ancestry, too; it means nothing.

“Wise Jewish people say that most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews themselves.

“No family is without a degenerate, as we (Russians) say.”

The imputation that Hiltler had Jewish blood was common in the 1920s. However, it has never been proven.

Sergey Lavrov sparked a furious reaction from his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid:

“Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks are both unforgivable and outrageous but also a terrible historical error,” he tweeted. “The Jews did not kill each other during the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.”