SOURCES: The extremist AUR party is negotiating a cooperation protocol with representatives of Israel’s ruling Likud party in Bucharest

by cpxchi

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  1. Translated article:

    Representatives of the extremist AUR party and Israel’s ruling Likud party are holding talks on Monday at the parliament in Bucharest on a possible cooperation protocol, official sources told G4Media. The official meeting is expected to take place at 11am and it is unclear whether it will result in a protocol or not, given that AUR has been constantly criticised in Israel for the anti-Semitic stances of some of its leaders.
    According to G4Media.co.uk, the protocol would be the initiative of Israeli Foreign Minister Elie Cohen. He is said to have bowed to pressure from the radical wing of Likud, which wants relations with far-right parties in Europe. The foreign minister’s initiative would not be supported by Israel’s diplomatic corps.
    At the time of publication, neither the leaders of the AUR nor the Israeli ambassador in Bucharest had responded to G4Media’s calls.
    Background. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is pushing to change Israel’s policy towards Romania’s far-right AUR party, which has expressed antisemitic positions and denied the Holocaust, against the advice of both the professional ranks in his ministry and Israel’s official Holocaust institution, Yad Vashem, Israeli publication Haaretz wrote in early August.
    According to the source, AUR is an opposition party in Romania that currently holds about 12% of the seats in the country’s parliament. It espouses a far-right nationalist ideology and has a history of anti-Semitic statements, along with attempts to downplay the extent of the Holocaust in Romania and the country’s responsibility for war crimes committed against the Jewish population.
    Until recently, Israel’s embassy in Bucharest had an official policy of having no contact with the AUR. Now Cohen has ordered the ministry to review this policy, under pressure from right-wing Israeli political figures who have worked closely with the AUR over the past year. Among those pushing for links with the AUR are Yossi Dagan, a leader of the West Bank settlement movement, and several senior Likud party operatives.
    The party said last year that the Holocaust in Romania was a “minor issue” and opposed plans to introduce Holocaust education into the country’s school system, describing them as an “ideological experiment” that would harm the education system.

    AUR voted against a resolution in the Romanian Parliament denouncing antisemitism and praised Romanian fascist leaders from the Second World War period who were involved in the murder of Jews.
    Several of AUR’s leaders are affiliated with modern fascist circles in Romania, inspired by the historic Iron Guard movement. In particular, it denied the responsibility of Romanian fascist leader and Nazi collaborator Ion Antonescu for the atrocities committed against Jews during the Holocaust.
    In the past year, the party’s new leader, George Simion, has tried to improve its public image by establishing links with right-wing Israeli politicians and downplaying the anti-Semitic nature of the AUR.
    Simion recently gave a lengthy interview to Israel Hayom under the headline “Holocaust memorial – not part of the political game”. In the interview, Simion compared Antonescu to other Romanian dictators, such as King Charles II and Communist-era dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, in an attempt to downplay Antonescu’s unique role in the Holocaust.
    These statements did not impress either the professional ranks of the Israeli Foreign Ministry or the experts at Yad Vashem, who were asked to state whether, in their opinion, the AUR is really changing its position on the Holocaust and antisemitism.
    In an article published this year to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, Simion wrote that his party “will certainly support further in-depth historical studies of the Holocaust memory, so that those who were truly guilty of committing such crimes in Romania will be rightly blamed and the true responsibilities will be correctly attributed, in accordance with objectively established historical facts.” Experts saw this as further evidence of his attempts to whitewash the Antonescu regime and Romania’s responsibility for the murder of the Jewish population.
    In response, Cohen’s office told Haaretz, “Until recently, there was no contact between the Israeli embassy in Romania and the AUR, because of statements by some of its members glorifying war criminals who committed crimes against Jews during the Holocaust. The party leader has recently made efforts to change his approach to Israel and the Jewish world, including statements accepting Romania’s responsibility during the Holocaust, denouncing anti-Semitism and describing the tyrant Ion Antonescu as a war criminal. As a result, the Foreign Ministry and the Romanian Embassy are examining, with the advice of Yad Vashem and other authorities, whether this is a genuine change that will allow a new policy towards this party.”
    Haaretz independently confirmed that the Foreign Ministry has contacted Yad Vashem, which has expressed its clear opposition to links with the AUR.

  2. Like we didn’t have enough corrupt parties (PSD, PNL, UDMR), now this party funded by Russia wants to make more damages to Romania.

    Too bad that both Romania and the EU is letting this Russian trojan horse weaken Romania and the EU from inside.

    I’m disgusted by both my country and by the EU for their passiveness.

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