Salome Zurabishvili condemned statement made by ex-president
Salome Zurabishvili condemned statement made by ex-president

Salome Zurabishvili, an independent presidential candidate supported by the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia Party responded to the statement made by ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on her Facebook page.

“I firmly condemn the statement made by former President Mikheil Saakashvili on 18 November referring to “Moshe the Jewish Crook”. This statement is unequivocally anti-Semitic. Antisemitism in all its forms should be condemned and never be tolerated in Georgia. They are absolutely unacceptable coming from the former president of this country.

Antisemitism has never been a feature of Georgian politics and should never become so. Georgia is known around the world and in Israel for not having experienced antisemitism for centuries. Georgia is a country where Georgians of Jewish faith have lived side by side with fellow Georgians of all faiths and have been allowed to worship free of hate, discrimination and pressure.

I consider those statements to be an insult to Georgia and to Georgian values. As a presidential candidate, I take pride in Georgia’s tradition of tolerance and its culture of openness. As the future president of this country, I intend to uphold those values and take all necessary steps against antisemitism, hate speech and all forms of religious or ethnic discrimination.

A country aspiring to become a member of the European Union should be steadfast in this commitment,” Zurabishvili wrote.