Lithuanian PM's advisor's brother admits to placing anti-Israel posters near memorial

VILNIUS - Saulius Vinokuras, the brother of Tadas Vinokuras, an advisor to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas, has admitted on social media that he and "a few Jewish people" had taken down the ribbons left by Israeli leaders at the Paneriai memorial and placed posters criticizing the country's policy on the war in Gaza.

As BNS reported earlier, several dozen people protested against Israel's policy outside the Foreign Ministry during Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar's visit to Lithuania on Tuesday.

Later, after Saar's visit to the Jewish memorial in Paneriai, posters were placed at the memorial with the slogans "Sanctions on Israel" and "Never again for anyone #FreePalestine".

In a Facebook post on Thursday night, Saulius Vinokuras said that he commemorated the "cruel and tragic historical massacre" in Paneriai on July 1" with a few Jewish people and concerned members of the community", after the Israeli foreign minister visited the memorial.

"And yes, we, honoring the victims, removed what we saw as an insult toward and desecration of this sacred historical site-a few ribbons with "the state of Israel" printed on them," he said. "And in the place of them, we left a message written in Yiddish, Arabic, and English: Never Again For Anyone. And together we sat before the memorial, read a text written by Palestinian and Jewish friends about how commemorating and honoring the wrongfully murdered of yesterday and today is the first step in ending future tragedies and holocausts."

The man also says that the Israeli ambassador to Lithuania accused the activists of a lack of moral values and having "hijacked" the memorial.

"We couldn’t have "hijacked" the memorial in Paneriai - it’s a public object with a deep symbolical value that we contributed to by condemning Sa'ar's commemoration of past genocides to justify and erase current ones," Vinokursas said.

He also shared photos of the posters on social media.

As BNS reported earlier,

The anti-Israeli posters placed at the memorial were also condemned by Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, Israel's ambassador to Lithuania, as wel as Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys.

Vilnius police are now looking into the circumstances of this incident. Police spokeswoman Loreta Kairiene told BNS on Friday that no pre-trial investigation had been opened into the incident.

According to the police report, the three "derogatory posters" placed next to the wreaths at the memorial were discovered on July 2 by a tour guide who informed the head of the Vilnius Jewish Public Library.

Saar's visit to Lithuania came amid tensions in the Middle East as the Jewish state continues its attacks in the Gaza Strip following a ceasefire agreed between Israel and Iran earlier this month, ending 12 days of fighting between the two countries.

According to Budrys, Lithuania's position has been and will remain that relations with Israel are valuable and necessary for the European Union.