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The European Union’s parliament urged the president of Belarus to apologize for slurring Jews and Israel.

Rene van der Linden, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in a statement Monday said the remarks by Alexander Lukashenko “verge on the absurd, but they are no less unacceptable for it.” He pushed the Belarusian leader to apologize for “his disgraceful words.”

In an Oct. 12 broadcast, Lukashenko said of Bobruisk, a Belarusian port city: “This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Bobruisk into a pig sty. Look at Israel — I was there.”

The United States and Israel also have condemned Lukashenko.

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