Venezuela’s UN envoy apologizes for likening Israel actions to ‘final solution’

RIO DE JANEIRO — Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations called his Israeli colleague to apologize for his remarks accusing Israel of seeking a “final solution” against the Palestinians made a day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel’s UN mission said.

Rafael Ramirez called Danny Danon over the weekend to offer the apology for what Danon called “blunt anti-Semitic statements” toward “the Jewish nation,” Israel’s UN mission said in a statement.

During the phone call, the statement said, Danon demanded that Ramirez issue a public apology, which may happen at the next Security Council meeting on the Middle East this week.

At a Security Council meeting on Friday, Ramirez said 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.

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

Last month, the Palestinian Authority representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, drew a parallel between Israeli soldiers tackling Palestinian stone-throwers and Nazis quashing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Mansour, who called had called a press conference to discuss UN action on Israel and the Palestinians, attacked Israeli diplomats for their terming stone-throwers “terrorists.”

“All colonizers, all occupiers, including those who suppressed the Warsaw Uprising, labeled those who were resisting them as terrorists,” he said.

The US State Department issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over Mansour’s comments.