Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro attempted to curb criticism over his comments that the Holocaust could be forgiven Saturday, saying that his words were being misinterpreted.
Bolsonaro on Thursday told a group of evangelical pastors in Rio de Janiero that “We can forgive, but we cannot forget. That quote is mine. Those that forget their past are sentenced not to have a future.”
In a clarification posted by Israel’s ambassador to Brazil Yossi Shelley late Saturday, Bolsonaro blamed “those who want to push me away from my Jewish friends,” for taking his speech out of context.
“To the people of Israel I wrote in the guestbook of the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem: ‘Those who forget their past are doomed to not have a future’ Therefore, any other interpretation is only in the interest of those who want to push me away from my jewish friends. Forgiveness is something personal, my speech was never meant to be used in a historical context, especially one where millions of innocent people were murdered in a cruel genocide,” he was quoted as writing by Shelley.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}