Viewers in Belarus were witness to an antisemitic rant on state television over the weekend by Ryhor Azaryonok, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's chief advocate on the media airwaves.
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Azaryonok's rant took on the late opposition supporter Andrey Zeltser, who has a Jewish last name. Since a national election in August 2020, Belarus has been in the grip of a political crisis that erupted after Lukashenko fraudulently won a sixth term as president. He has since been cracking down on any and all opposition.
KGB officers stormed Zeltser's apartment in the capital Minsk, where he and his girlfriend were at the time, and shot him to death in what appears to be a deliberate raid to take him out.
According to state media, one KGB officer was also killed during the incident.
Authorities released a video purporting to show the raid taking place, but many critics cast doubt on the authenticity of the heavily edited footage.
The KGB officer who lost his life during the raid was hailed as a hero and Zeltser was declared a "terrorist."
After the incident, Azaronak lambasted Zeltser, among other things, for living in Belarus, but working for an American software engineering firm.
"They [KGB officers] went to this bastard's apartment! Zeltser! The IT guy from EPAM, who according to some reports, is an American citizen," he said. "A cosmopolite to whom the [Belarusian] state has granted benefits and he only lined his pockets living in two countries, collecting money here and spending it there."
Azaryonok went on to compare Zeltser to other opposition leaders, including Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who many consider to be the real winner of the latest elections.
Azaronak describing Zeltser as a "cosmopolite" is no coincidence, for the term is a known pejorative Soviet epithet. Back then, Jews were called "rootless cosmopolites."
In addition, Azaronak's description of Zeltser as "living in two countries, collecting money here and spending it there" is an allusion to the common accusation that Jews are disloyal to the state.
Israel Hayom reached out to the Israeli Foreign Ministry for comment, but they were not immediately available.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
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