Several prominent Israeli institutions and individuals have appealed to the US not to sanction Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich, the Middle East Monitor reported.
In a letter to US Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem – Israel’s official Holocaust memorial -the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, urged Washington not to sanction Abramovich, who is a major donor to Zionist causes.
roman abramovic obtain his Israel citizenship after sponsoring illegal zoinists settlers with a whopping £74m.
Make with that what you will! pic.twitter.com/v1Fa7QKTVq— zac (@zacM6) March 2, 2022
Abramovich, who took up Israeli citizenship in 2018 after failing to extend his visa to the UK, has reportedly donated almost $102 million to a far-right Israeli settler organization that displaces Palestinian families from occupied East Jerusalem.
His total donation to Israeli causes however is said to be more than $500 million. The oligarch has also purchased at least three properties in Israel, one worth 64.5 million.
The letter said sanctioning Abramovich would cause harm to Israeli institutions that rely on him for donations. Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan added that Abramovich was the museum’s second-largest private donor, after the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam.
This is just insane. Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Museum) tried to intervene on behalf of Roman Abramovic to prevent sanctioning, because they are so dependent on his money. #oligarchs https://t.co/dJHPoSzWfp
— Simon Jarrett 🇿🇦🇱🇺🇺🇦 (@SimonJarrett72) March 2, 2022
Abramovich made a multi-million-dollar donation to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, the museum announced last month, calling it “a new long-term strategic partnership.”
“We are deeply grateful to Roman Abramovich for this generous contribution that will significantly strengthen Yad Vashem’s mission,” Dayan said.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Tel Aviv, Yevgeny Kornichuk, said he was “disappointed” that Israel was not accepting all refugees from the war in his country. The racist practices of the state of Israel also became a source of anger and frustration for Ukrainian officials. While the occupation state has opened its doors to Ukrainian Jews, it has not been so welcoming to non-Jews fleeing the war.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
