Pro-Russian MEP Diana Şoşoacă claims that a Jewish secret cabal plans to establish a “New Israel” in Eastern Europe, specifically on Romanian and Ukrainian territory, arguing that Israel’s independence was declared for only 76 years.
NEWS: “In case you’ve been wondering what’s going on with the Jews we’re seeing in Romania, it’s the New Israel in Eastern and Central Europe. I believe many of you have noticed them pulling back. I’m telling you this now, so as to give you a bit of context, so you’ll understand what’s currently happening in Europe. You’ll understand what’s happening in Romania as well, and where we stand right now.
Supposedly, the State of Israel’s independence was declared for only 76 years. And you’ll see how this connects to what’s happening in Romania right now. So, 1948 to 2024 was allegedly the timeframe within which they were supposed to relocate their population. I don't know if you’re aware, but people have talked about this before. Still, they prepared well in advance and built the largest synagogue in Europe, right here in Romania. [...]
Hanukkah was declared an official public holiday in Kyiv, a legal holiday for everyone. And please remember May 14, 2024, when I took a stand and threw out the people who were booing in the Romanian Parliament, including the Israeli Ambassador to Bucharest. There were over 250 Jews in the Romanian Parliament at a time when we should have been commemorating the Martyrs of Communist Prisons National Remembrance Day. They hijacked - in fact, canceled - that commemoration to do something else instead.
They passed a law, a legislative initiative, establishing Israel's Independence Day as a Romanian national holiday. That’s what May 14 is. [...] Don’t fall for the tricks and nonsense pushed by these system puppets run by the Khazars. Those people back then were killed by Judeo-Bolsheviks. And now look at Kyiv: in Ukraine, Hanukkah has been made a national holiday of the Ukrainian state”.
NARRATIVES: 1. Jews are forcing their religious holidays on Romania and Ukraine as part of a plot to relocate the State of Israel to Eastern Europe. 2. Israel was established to exist for only 76 years.
PURPOSE: To undermine public trust in government authorities. To promote conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic narratives. To incite and escalate social unrest.
The “Diana Şoşoacă” festival of anti-Semitic lies
WHY THESE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Diana Şoşoacă’s claims often take real facts as a jumping-off point, but take them out of context and string them together in order to suggest a conspiracy while providing zero evidence to support it.
No country is ever founded with an expiration date attached
The first blatant absurdity is the claim that the State of Israel was created for a limited term of 76 years, after which its population would be forced to relocate. Naturally, there is no legal or historical basis for this assertion. Nowhere in the world, at any point in history, has a sovereign state ever been established on a temporary basis. Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, following the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, preserved by the Knesset (the Parliament of Israel), contains no 76-year time limit and makes no provision for dissolving the state in 2024 or any other year. The document simply proclaims the state's establishment and outlines the founding principles of its government.
Various religious and numerological interpretations on the Internet have tried to attach special significance to a 76-year timeframe, but these are theological speculations, not legal documents. The closest match to this claim appears in an apocalyptic/numerological Christian essay published by the US-based organization God's Kingdom Ministries. In a piece titled “Secrets of Time”, the author calculates a “final 76-year cycle” running from 1948 to 2024. Linking this period to Israel’s 1948 founding, the text asserts that 1948–2024 was a window for the Israeli state to “repent” and fulfill its divine mandate, after which, in 2024, God would judge its performance. Misrepresenting a theological theory as an official temporal limit on Israel's existence is, to put it mildly, completely baseless.
Migration (including by Israeli nationals) is a completely normal phenomenon
Like any other group, Jewish people move, emigrate, immigrate or return to Israel. What does not exist is any evidence of an official plan to abandon Israel and relocate its population to Romania, Ukraine or anywhere else in Central and Eastern Europe. Şoşoacă takes ordinary phenomena, such as routine migration, the presence of Jewish diaspora communities and the construction of places of worship, and twists them into a supposed geopolitical conspiracy without a single shred of evidence.
Romania has not built “the largest synagogue in Europe”
Șoșoacă claims that Jews “built the largest synagogue in Europe in Romania”. This claim is demonstrably false. While a major synagogue was recently constructed in Sighetu Marmației, media outlets described it as the largest synagogue in Eastern Europe, not on the entire continent. The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest is universally recognized as the largest synagogue in Europe by both footprint and seating capacity. Furthermore, there is no connection whatsoever between the construction of the synagogue in Sighet and any supposed relocation of Israel's population.
Similarly, Șoșoacă’s claim that “the largest menorah in Europe” was installed in Kyiv is false, though derived from a real event. Every year, a hanukkiah (the nine-branched menorah used during the festival of Hanukkah) is traditionally erected in the Ukrainian capital. This is distinct from the biblical seven-branched menorah, an ancient symbol of the Jewish people, no longer used in modern worship services. While Kyiv city officials did describe the public hanukkiah as the largest in Europe, using this fact to claim that there is a conspiracy to relocate Israel to Ukraine is entirely unfounded.
Hanukkah is not a national holiday in Ukraine
Șoșoacă also claims that “Hanukkah was declared an official holiday in Kyiv, a legal holiday for everyone”. This statement likely intentionally conflates a legislative proposal by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (a non-practicing Jew) asking the government to consider granting official recognition to several major Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, including Western Easter, Eid al-Adha and Hanukkah. Hanukkah was merely placed on a list of holidays slated for potential official review. It was never made a mandatory public holiday for all Ukrainian citizens. In fact, the official holiday calendar published by the Ukrainian Parliament does not list Hanukkah as a national holiday.
Șoșoacă further points out that, in 2022, while Ukraine was under attack, Jews celebrated Hanukkah in Kyiv, asking rhetorically, “Aren't bombs falling there?” In fact, starting December 16, 2022, two days before the Hanukkah lighting mentioned in her speech, the Kyiv region was subjected to heavy Russian missile attacks that continued through December 19. On December 18, the ceremony to light the first candle took place in central Kyiv. News reports from the event specifically highlighted that it occurred during rolling blackouts caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. A religious community holding a public gathering during wartime hardly proves they were immune to airstrikes or that bombings had stopped.
Israel’s Independence Day is not a national holiday in Romania
Şoşoacă falsely claims that the Day of Solidarity and Friendship between Romania and the State of Israel is now a Romanian national holiday. Established under a law passed in April 2024, it simply provides for diplomatic, political, cultural, social and artistic events, and allows the Israeli flag to be raised alongside the Romanian flag each year on May 14, the date Israel marks its Independence Day. Contrary to the MEP's claims, this does not make it a Romanian national holiday.
Şoșoacă is correct, however, to argue that May 14 was already designated as the Martyrs of Communist Prisons National Remembrance Day, marked by official memorial services, wreath-laying and events honoring the victims of communist oppression. While scheduling both observances on the same date can be debated politically, it is certainly not evidence of an Israeli scheme to erase the memory of communism's victims. Moreover, her claim that the communist victim commemoration was “canceled” is disproved by parliamentary transcripts from 2024. Describing the session, Şoşoacă claimed: “I took a stand and threw out those who were booing in the Romanian Parliament, including the Israeli Ambassador to Bucharest”. According to the official transcript published on the Romanian Senate’s website, following a joint session dedicated to Romania-Israel relations, Alfred Simonis (then Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies) called for observing a moment of silence for the martyrs of communist prisons, explicitly referencing the law establishing the memorial day. Contrary to her claims, the only person causing a scene was Şoşoacă herself, who screamed in the background, “Long live the Guard! Honor to our fatherland!” Both observances took place on the same day.
Victims of communism cannot be reduced to “Legionnaires”, nor communism to “Jews”
The MEP goes on to claim that victims of communism were “specifically Legionnaires, as well as priests and monks of Legionnaire background”, calling them “the most patriotic and Christian people”. This assertion is a gross historical oversimplification. Victims of communist persecution included not just members of the Legionary Movement, but also National Liberals, National Peasants' Party members, Social Democrats, monarchists, intellectuals, military officers, clergy and ordinary citizens targeted for political or religious reasons completely unrelated to the Legion.
Furthermore, portraying the Legionary Movement as “the most patriotic and Christian people” is not a historical fact, but an illegal whitewashing of an extreme-right group. The Legionary Movement was a fascist, anti-Semitic organization responsible for political assassinations and targeted violence against Jewish people and other minorities. The fact that its members later suffered under communist repression does not erase their crimes or the movement's fascist nature.
Şoşoacă also claims that victims of communism were murdered by “Judeo-Bolsheviks”, a deeply anti-Semitic trope that blames Jewish people exclusively for communist atrocities. Communist repression in Romania was carried out by the state apparatus and its enforcement arms: the Party, the Secret Police, the militia, prosecutors, the prison system and other state actors. While some individuals of Jewish background did serve in the communist apparatus, so did individuals of many other ethnic backgrounds. Using the ethnicity of specific individuals to hold an entire ethnic or religious group accountable for a regime's actions is an unfounded, hate-driven generalization.
“The Jews are to blame for everything!”
BACKGROUND: Anti-Semitism in Romania is on the rise. Over the years, Veridica has debunked numerous anti-Semitic false narratives, ranging from claims that Jews caused floods in Romania, to allegations that they invented artificial intelligence to censor the Internet.
Since the early 1990s, various groups in Romania have systematically attempted to rehabilitate the Legionary Movement and its anti-Semitic ideology. Anti-Semitic rhetoric was concurrently popularized by political extremists, most notably Corneliu Vadim Tudor and his Greater Romania Party (PRM). Similar themes were later picked up by sovereignist politicians, influencers and media personalities, with social platforms providing a fertile breeding ground for hate speech. Anti-Semitic rhetoric has also surged among far-left groups amid recent Middle East conflicts, particularly following the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza, which has drawn global allegations of war crimes and genocide.
The mainstreaming of far-right narratives is also evident in how sovereignist parties have opposed recent anti-extremism legislation, framing it as a threat to free speech and a tool designed to suppress national Christian identity.
Named the political personality of the year in 2021 by the Kremlin’s mouthpiece, Sputnik, Diana Șoșoacă has built her reputation on public scandals while echoing pro-Russian disinformation and conspiracy theories. Her public remarks routinely feature discriminatory, homophobic and anti-Semitic talking points, alongside legislative proposals that blatantly violate international law. She frequently claims to represent Romania in private meetings with authoritarian leaders in Russia, China and Venezuela (prior to Nicolás Maduro’s removal from power), despite having no official mandate or legal authority to represent the Romanian government or negotiate international agreements.
Diana Șoșoacă is currently under criminal investigation in Romania facing 11 charges, including unlawful deprivation of liberty, assault of a public official, public promotion of fascist/Legionnaire ideology, promotion of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and inciting violence. In early June, she attended the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, where she personally addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, praising his actions and claiming the Romanian people love him. In mid-September, she returned to Moscow, where she declared on social media: “Listen here, Ursula, there will only be war in Europe and Romania WHEN I SAY SO!”
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