Minsk – Belarus
President, Alexander Lukashenko, criticized the Jewish governor of the province of Minsk, claiming that he does not
“control” the Jewish population, despite instructions for this purpose.
In a speech to the nation, in which he
criticized the governor of the province of Minsk, Semyon Shapiro, Lukashenko
referred to statements made by Yuri Zisser, who attacked his decision to impose
a tax on citizens who have worked less than 183 days a year. The Belarusian
president attacked Zisser also for ”not behaving appropriately”, but he
mainly criticized the Jewish governor.
“I told you a year ago to take control over the Jews,” said the
president, who rules Belarus
with an iron fist since 1994.
In a three-hour speech delivered today,
mostly dealing with the economic situation of Belarus and its international
standing, Lukashenko praised the contribution of the Jewish community in the
resistance to the Nazi occupation during World War II, where about 800,000 Jews
died. In addition, he called the Jews “white bones “, a term that refers
to people who do not like to engage in manual labor. ”They do not like to get
their hands dirty or to fight, but they did get their hands
dirty for us,” he said.
Zisser, whose news site is considered to be
the most popular in Belarus,
said he was stunned by the president’s remarks. “Often, officials are
expressing diverse and aggressive opinions about us… but we cannot distort
the information in accordance with their wishes,” he told the news agency
“Reuters”.
