Romania ‘shocked’ by Israeli minister’s call with candidate who praised WWII antisemites
After Amichai Chikli talks with Calin Georgescu, Bucharest’s ambassador denounces ‘insult,’ demands apology for the apparent backing of far-right figure who lauded murderers of Jews
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Romania’s ambassador to Israel said on Sunday that Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli was “meshugeneh” — Yiddish for crazy or foolish — for speaking by phone with a presidential candidate who has praised notorious Romanian antisemites and Nazi collaborators.
“I am deeply hurt, and I think that Mr. Chikli owes us an apology,” Radu Ioanid told The Times of Israel.
“I find it shocking to see a minister of the government of the State of Israel be perceived as backing, in a crucial electoral moment, a Romanian political candidate who is loudly and proudly glorifying historical figures who were directly responsible for [the] mass murder of Jews,” said the ambassador.
Chikli spoke to Calin Georgescu last Thursday and retweeted an article that said the presidential frontrunner had told the Likud minister that he would invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Bucharest while ignoring arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court; move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem; and institute a zero-tolerance policy for antisemitism. Chikli has since removed the tweet.
Georgescu’s camp confirmed the call, but said they did not discuss the ICC.
“It’s an insult,” said Ioanid. “This guy doesn’t know anything about the Holocaust in Romania, clearly. Because if he would have made his homework, this would not have happened.”
Ioanid is a Holocaust scholar who worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for over three decades.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the call or on Ioanid’s criticism. Chikli’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.
Georgescu previously went viral with his praise for two fascists who led Romania in the 1930s and 1940s.
Speaking on a primetime news show in February 2022, Georgescu, a sustainability expert formerly affiliated with the United Nations, explained why he had cited Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a national “hero,” saying Codreanu “fought for the morality of the human being.”
The comment immediately drew widespread condemnation, including from Jewish groups, because Codreanu led the fiercely antisemitic Legionnaire Movement, which espoused an extreme version of ethnic and religious nationalism that involved political murders and acts of terrorism, until his execution in 1938.
Two years later, the group entered the government of Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu, where it stayed until the following January, when it mounted a pogrom in the capital of Bucharest in which more than 120 Jews were killed and several synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed. The pogrom was intended as an uprising against Antonescu’s government, which the Legionnaire Movement believed was insufficiently aggressive in pursuing a campaign against Romanian Jews.
Georgescu also referred to Antonescu, under whose rule at least 280,000 Jews were killed and who was executed in 1946 for war crimes, as a “martyr.”
Ioanid said that Israel shouldn’t be fooled by Georgescu’s promises to move the embassy and fight antisemitism. “It’s a cheap trick. I didn’t hear him saying this before, and I don’t think, by the way, if God forbid he’s elected, that he’ll be able to do it.”
He also said that Chikli “endangers” the friendship between Romania and Israel.
“Romania always showed respect and friendship to Israel and staunchly stood by Israel after [the] 7th of October Hamas attack,” said Ioanid, referring to the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught last year. “No Romanian official has ever taken the liberty to get involved in internal Israeli electoral matters.”
Georgescu ran independently after leaving Romania’s far-right party, Alliance for the Union of Romanians, following his controversial comments and amid accusations that he supported Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Georgescu’s outsized showing — he took home 22 percent of the vote, far more than the 10% polls had suggested he would win — comes amid a wave of electoral successes for right-wing populists across Europe and beyond.
Ioanid said he would not be reaching out to Chikli after the phone call: “Why should I talk to him after what he did?”
JTA contributed to this report.
