Israeli, Lithuanian Presidents Face Pro-Palestinian Protests in Lithuania

JONIŠKIS, Lithuania — Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda were met by pro-Palestinian protests as they shook hands outside the presidential palace in the capital city of Vilnius on Monday.

Herzog is one a three-day visit to the Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. He is visiting Holocaust memorial sites, including the new Lost Shtetl Museum in the small town of Seduva, in northern Lithuania.

At a joint press conference with the Lithuanian president, Herzog stressed the fact that Israel is helping Palestnians in Gaza with humanitarian aid, and he stressed the need to rescue the Israeli hostages.

Israel’s Government Press Office said in a statement:

In his remarks, President Herzog said: *“For nearly two years, the State of Israel has been fighting to bring our hostages home and restore security for all our citizens. We deeply mourn every innocent life lost. And in response to your comments, Mr. President, I want to emphasize: we are making tremendous efforts to address the humanitarian situation, in accordance with international law. Just this week alone, 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid entered Gaza. Hundreds of trucks are waiting to be distributed—but the United Nations has failed to do so efficiently.”

He added, “We encourage and welcome humanitarian airdrops by more and more countries, and we call on all nations to join this critical effort to improve conditions on the ground. But we must also speak the truth: the Hamas campaign of false accusations, while it itself bears direct responsibility for the suffering of Gaza’s civilians, is a blatant lie and a distortion of reality.”

He held the pictures of the hostages and said, “Allow me to show you this image: this is Evyatar David, a young Israeli with Lithuanian heritage. Just two days ago, Hamas released footage of him from captivity. Look at the hand of the captor – well-fed – compared to Evyatar’s emaciated frame. He is in immediate, life-threatening danger. Hamas also released footage of another hostage, Rom Braslavski, who is in similarly dire condition. They are among dozens of hostages still being held in Gaza.”

He stressed, “From here, I cry out to the world: we must not remain silent. They must all be brought home. That is the key to resolving the severe crisis in Gaza and the wider Middle East. These hostages are the victims of horrific crimes against humanity. These horrendous images are yet another chilling reminder: while Israel delivers humanitarian aid into Gaza, innocent Israelis are held underground, tortured, and stripped of all rights. This must shake the conscience of the entire world. And there is only one path forward: bring them all home.”

Lithuania is one of the countries in which the Holocaust began. Most of the victims were shot into mass graves, many by local Lithuanian militias and police, at the encouragement of the invading Nazi Germans.

In June 1941, there were about 220,000 Jews living in Lithuania. Within weeks, 95% of them had been murdered — many of them by local people in the communities where they had lived peacefully for centuries.

A younger generation of Lithuanians, raised after the fall of the Soviet Union, is taking an interest in their country’s Jewish legacy. There is, however, a remnant of antisemitism, whose hatred is directed at Israel.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.