By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Moscow summoned on Sunday Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alex Ben Zvi, amid diplomatic tensions over the Russia-Ukraine war.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized “anti-Russian” remarks by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine following the April 7 vote to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

#Washington has long wanted to drive a wedge between #Russia and #Germany. Is the #Ukraine also helping drive a wedge between Russia and #Israel? Russia "slammed the Israeli occupation's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for his statements" https://t.co/oic3bPVLuB pic.twitter.com/ciNTsSUdfZ

— tim anderson (@timand2037) April 17, 2022

In a statement released after the vote, Lapid spoke about the “unjustified invasion” of Ukraine, while accusing the Russian military of “killing innocent civilians”.

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to Lapid’s accusations saying that “There is an effort to take advantage of the situation around Ukraine to distract the international community from one of the longest unresolved conflicts — the Palestinian-Israeli.”

This is the kind of immoral double standards that all of us from the colonized and exploited world see. Replace Israeli occupation forces with Russia & the voices condemning this action as another example of a genocidal program would be too loud to ignore & they would be right! https://t.co/SnD5OsWNfY

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) April 11, 2022

The Russian statement also denounced “the illegal occupation and creeping annexation of Palestinian territories (…) carried out with the tacit connivance of the leading Western countries and the actual support of the United States”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)