People marching in the US chanting neo-Nazi slogans that “Jews will not replace us” is no inconsequential matter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Channel 20 interview taped Wednesday in Sochi.
This was the first time that Netanyahu spoke publicly about the rally two weeks ago in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Prefacing his remarks by saying that he did not want to get into the internal US debate about the rally and President Donald Trump’s response to it, Netanyahu said, “I can say unequivocally: It’s no small thing that people march with Nazi, neo-Nazi slogans.”
The chanting of antisemitic and racist slogans is a “grave thing,” he said, adding that “antisemitism is a serious matter wherever it appears — in Europe or in the Middle East or in the United States, and that is our attitude toward it.”
Netanyahu blamed the media for not adequately covering his condemnation of the marchers.
“I said, and of course our media did not exactly cover it, that these people should crawl back under the rock they came from. I usually choose my words carefully, but that was a very harsh statement. This, of course, was not covered and led to all sorts of irrelevant interpretations.”
The prime minister has come under some criticism for not coming out swiftly or strongly enough about the events in Charlottesville.
On the Tuesday after the weekend of the marches, Netanyahu posted the following tweet: “Outraged by expressions of antisemitism, neo-Nazism and racism. Everyone should oppose this hatred.”
The statement about the need for the neo-Nazis to “crawl back under the rock” that Netanyahu spoke of in his Channel 20 interview, was not said by him publicly, but rather in a conversation with Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
Dermer quoted the prime minister in a Facebook post put up on his Facebook page on August 14, the Monday after the Charlottesville incidents, which reported on comments he made to Jewish leaders in Little Rock, Arkansas, that day.
He called the killing of counter-protester Heather Heyer “an act of terrorism,” and said “the hate-fest on display there by neo-Nazis and klansmen was utterly despicable.”
Dermer said he spoke to Netanyahu about the events and that the premier “asked him to convey Israel’s outrage over the attack and over the expressions of antisemitism and racism.”
The Facebook post continued: “Ambassador Dermer said: ‘Prime Minister Netanyahu’s exact words were that these people should crawl back under the rock they came from.”
The Jerusalem Post reported on Dermer’s Facebook post the next day.