Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Venezuela Envoy Sorry for Comparing Israel Actions to ‘Final Solution’  

(JTA) — Venezuela’s envoy to the United Nations called his Israeli colleague to apologize for his  accusing Israel of seeking a “final solution” against the Palestinians, made a day after Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“These are blunt anti-Semitic statements coming from the Venezuelan ambassador towards the Jewish nation,” said Ambassador Danny Danon, according to a statement by Israel’s  mission to the UN.

During the speech at a Security Council meeting on Friday, Rafael Ramirez said that council members should ask themselves: “What does Israel plan to do with the Palestinians? Will they be disappeared? Is Israel trying to impose a ‘final solution’ on the Palestinians in the West Bank?”

The comparison, drawing a link between Israel and Nazi Germany, drew immediate outrage from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

According to the Israeli mission at the UN, during the phone call, Danon demanded that the Venezuelan representative issue a public apology, which may happen at the next Security Council meeting on the Middle East this week.

“The ambassador’s statements are a continuation of the Palestinian representative’s statements which equated Israel to the Nazis only a few days ago. The Palestinians are bringing anti-Semitism to the UN and are bringing the language of racism to the world parliament,” Danon said.

Last month Palestinian Authority representative to the UN Riyad Mansour drew a parallel between the Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust and the Muslim terrorists perpetrators of recent attacks in Israel.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.