The Israeli and German embassies in Lima issued an unusually strong condemnation following a speech by Peru’s president, José María Balcázar, in which he attributed responsibility for the outbreak of World War II to Jews.
The speech, delivered earlier this week at an event marking the 138th anniversary of the Lima Chamber of Commerce, included a claim that Jews controlled trade and the banking system in Germany, and that this control led the country into war in 1939.
In response, the embassies said the claim was “absurd, baseless and offensive to the memory of millions of German Jews murdered by the Nazis.” They stressed that responsibility for the war rests with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, which launched it with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939.
The statement noted that Nazi ideology, rooted in racism and antisemitism, led to the قتل of six million Jews in the Holocaust. It emphasized that there is no place for historical distortion or for diminishing the memory of the victims.
The embassies called for rejecting all expressions of antisemitism and hatred and urged efforts to prevent and eradicate them. They also expressed expectation that Balcázar would retract his remarks.
The Jewish community in Peru also expressed shock at the comments and called for a public apology, saying the statements echoed dangerous antisemitic stereotypes. Community representatives and other public figures in the country joined in the condemnation. As of now, no official response has been issued by the Peruvian president’s office.
First published: 20:54, 04.30.26