Israeli ambassador to Romania Reuven Azar met with Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party head George Simion on Monday in Bucharest.
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This marks the first meeting between an Israeli official and the AUR’s head, as leaders of the party, which currently holds 12% of the seats in the Romanian Parliament and is part of the opposition, have expressed clear antisemitic positions, alongside Holocaust denial.
Just last year, AUR declared that the Holocaust of Romanian Jews was a "minor event" and opposed a curriculum to teach the Holocaust in Romanian schools, claiming it to be an "ideological experiment" that would harm the Romanian education system. In recent years, AUR has also voted against a bill condemning antisemitism and praised fascist leaders and antisemites from Romanian history, including from the Holocaust era.
The meeting followed Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's directive to reconsider the policy of boycotting the extremist party, whose leader has been attempting in the past year to distance the party from antisemitism by aligning with right-wing figures in Israel. This shift in policy runs contrary to the position of professional diplomats in the ministry and goes against Yad Vashem's position, which argued against engaging with this problematic party due to its alarming history.
Following the meeting, the far-right Romanian politician released a statement acknowledging Romania's responsibility for the Holocaust of Romanian Jews and expressing profound regret. He said such horrors should never happen again to Jews, Romanians, Zionists, or any other nation in the world.
The statement also underscored that "every country, including Romania, must teach this crucial chapter of history to ensure that all future generations are aware of and recognize the inhumanity of those times and why it is vital to prevent such horrors." Simion strongly condemned antisemitism in the statement and emphasized that his party has zero tolerance towards it.
The change in policy towards AUR was initiated by the head of the West Bank Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, who was also present at the meeting. Dagan invited Simion along with a delegation from his party to visit the settlements, and Simion accepted the invitation and expressed support for the right of Jews to settle in the West bank.