Israel has reacted with fury after Russia's foreign minister claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".
Media reports say Sergei Lavrov made the comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact that its president is Jewish.
Israel's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador for "clarification" and demanded an apology.
Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War II.
Mr. Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on Italian TV program Zona Bianca on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.
When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to "de-Nazify" Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is himself Jewish, Mr. Lavrov said: "I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelenskiy is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews."
Recall, Daily Express reported on August 24, 2010 that samples taken from relatives of the Nazi leader link him to both the Jewish community and people from North Africa, such as the Berbers of Morocco.
Investigative journalist Jean-Paul Mulders was reportedly able to probe Hitler’s DNA after taking a serviette dropped by the dictator’s great-nephew Alexander Stuart-Houston, 61, who lives in Long Island, New York.
He also got a sample from an Austrian cousin of Hitler, a farmer known as Norbert H.
The tests are reportedly said to reveal a form of the Y-chromosome that is rare in Germany and the rest of Western Europe, but common among Jewish and North African groups.
This has led experts to think that Hitler – leader of the so-called “master race” – had migrant relatives who settled in his homeland. Mr. Mulders said both the test samples had a form of genetic material known as Haplopgroup E1b1b, proving an “irrefutable link” to the Nazi leader.
The Belgian journalist said: “It is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. One can from this postulate that Hitler was related to people whom he despised.”
Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, said: “Hitler would not have been pleased about this.
“Race and blood was central in the world of the Nazis. Hitler’s concern over his descent was not unjustified. He was apparently not ‘pure’ or ‘Aryan’.”
Experts noted that Hitler’s link to his “migrant ancestors” could go back anything from three to 20 generations.
Meanwhile, Firstpost reported on Mya 3 that Austrian historian Roman Sandgruber has told AFP that there is no solid evidence to support claims that Hitler had Jewish and African ancestors.
