republic of Ukraine 2006

 

The year 2006 witnessed an increase in crime motivated by racial hatred, and a commensurate rise in antisemitic attacks and attempted attacks. Jews were stabbed and beaten, and Holocaust memorials and synagogues desecrated. Some antisemites gained seats in the Ukrainian parliament in the March general election.

 

Jewish Community

According to the 2001 population census, there were 103,600 Jews in Ukraine; however, data of local Jewish organizations indicate the number of Jews to be 200,000−400,000. All-Ukrainian umbrella Jewish organizations include the Vaad of Ukraine (Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities), Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, Association of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, Jewish Council of Ukraine, Jewish Foundation of Ukraine, Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (Chabad), Religious Union of Communities of Progressive Judaism and Midreshet Jerushalaim (a local branch of the Movement of Conservative Judaism).

The Jewish Agency and the Joint are very active in Ukraine. Charity (Khesed) organizations, supported by the Joint, operate in tens of cities and some west Ukrainian cities have their own charities. Schools, Sunday schools, kindergartens, yeshivas, ulpans and children’s’ summer camps are supported by the Or Avner fund. There are also pedagogic institutes: the International Solomon University in Kiev (with a branch in Kharkov) and Beit Khana women’s college in Dnepropetrovsk, as well as the Institute of Jewish Studies in Kiev, the Center for Jewish Studies in the National University of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, the Department of History and Culture of the Jewish People at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies in the National Academy of Science, the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies and the religious Jewish University in Odessa. Ukrainian Jewry publish several newspapers, including the Jewish Observer (Jewish Confederation of Ukraine), Hadashot (Vaad of Ukraine), VEK (All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress) and the literary almanac Yehupets; most large provincial communities have their own newspapers, too.

 

Political background

Elections to the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) were held in March 2006. Following lengthy negotiations between the elected parties, a parliamentary majority was formed by the Party of Regions (PR, 32.14 percent of the votes), the Socialist Party (5.69 percent) and the Communist Party of Ukraine (3.66 percent). Viktor Ianukovich, leader of PR, became prime minister. Two other political parties that gained seats in the Verkhovna Rada were the Iulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BIuT, 22.29 percent) and the Our Ukraine (to which President Viktor Iushenko’s party, Our Ukraine, belongs - 13.95 percent).

Also participating in the elections were some parties with an antisemitic agenda, including the Ukrainian Conservative Party (UKP) headed by the president of MAUP (see below), Georgii Shchokin, and the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda (Freedom) headed by Oleg Tiagnybok; both leaders are known for their antisemitic statements.

The UKP platform urged a struggle against Zionism and giving priority to Ukrainians in all governmental structures; Svoboda called for proportional representation of ethnic groups. Although the UKP agenda provoked a debate among members of the Central Elections Committee, the party was not banned from participating and anti-Jewish rhetoric became a key element of its campaign, including of its leaders. At least half of its newspaper Za Ukrainskuiu Ukrainu, distributed free around the country during the campaign, was devoted to antisemitic content. In early March, at a meeting of the Forum of National Patriotic Forces in Kherson, UKP leader Georgii Shchokin accused the Jews of robbing the country and seizing power in Ukraine. He urged banning the activity of organized Jewry in the country.

The results of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada showed that the overall majority of the population was not prepared to support antisemites and extreme nationalists: UKP received only 0.09 percent of the vote and Svoboda 0.36 percent. However, in the western regions Svoboda was more successful in local elections: in Lvov, for example, it received 4.91 percent of the regional council vote.

Although, the parliamentary elections demonstrated that political antisemitism in Ukraine is not a serious phenomenon, individual politicians who expressed antisemitic views during the campaign as well as previously, succeeded in gaining seats in the Verkhovna Rada. The ‘patriarch’ of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, Levko Lukianenko, won a seat as a member of the above mentioned BIuT. A few months prior to the elections he stated that the Zionists (Jews) were supporting the State of Israel and sought to dominate the countries in which they lived. He recommended checking the nationality of the Ukrainian president’s advisors and exposing the plot of Jewish ownership of the mass media, whose organs were deliberately and systematically conducting an informational war against the Ukrainian nation. Although Lukianenko’s antisemitic views were probably not the reason for his acceptance to BIuT, they did not prevent him from gaining high office within it.

 

Antisemitic activities

Antisemitism in Ukraine should be examined in the context of the general attitude toward national minorities in the country. The year 2006 witnessed an increase in crime motivated by ethnic hatred. In the larger cities (Kiev, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and Simferopol) skinhead groups became more active and street attacks against national minorities were more frequent. In the last three months of the year, three Africans were murdered in Kiev. The problem is even more serious in the Crimean region where there is a large Crimean Tatar minority. In some areas, too, conflicts arose between different Christian denominations and churches were torched. However, the situation is better than in Russia, where tens of foreigners are murdered each year; in Ukraine, street violence only increased markedly in late 2006.

 

Violent Incidents

In 2006 there was also an increase in the number of attacks and attempted attacks on Jews. In Dnepropetrovsk an identifiably Jewish man, Khaim Gobrov, 20, was severely stabbed and beaten on his way from the Golden Rose Synagogue on 20 April, Hitler’s birthday. A few days earlier four Jewish youths had been attacked by a group of skinheads in the city’s main square.

On 16 December, a group of youths shouting antisemitic insults such as “Kikes, get out of here” beat three religious Jews near a synagogue in Kiev. Two of the victims managed to escape and called the police but they were told to call again the next day. Meanwhile, the third Jew was severely injured and a passerby who tried to intervene was also hurt. The police arrived the next day and began an investigation.

Also in Kiev, a man came to the Brodsky Synagogue on 3 February, and asked the guards to call the rabbi. However, the guards noticed that he had a knife, stopped him and called the police, who arrested him. At the station, the man, Gerogii Dobrianskii, said that if he was sentenced to a year or two in prison, he would return to the synagogue after his release. He was charged with planning to use a firearm and sentenced to one year imprisonment.

Three men assaulted a Jewish student, Azaria Menaker, at the Kiev metro on 5 March. He tried to defend himself with a BB (air) gun, which he had bought and registered after he and another student, Mordekhai Molozhenov, had been attacked in August 2005 (see ASW 2005). One of the perpetrators was injured and the other two were arrested.

Fans of an Israeli team that played a football match on 14 September against a local Odessa team were beaten up after the game. On 18 September 24-year-old Haim Weitzman was beaten by a group of youths shouting “I don’t like Jews” in the center of Odessa.

On 22 March several youths near the Brodsky synagogue in Kiev stopped a young man who was approaching and insulted him with antisemitic remarks. They also urged passersby to “stab and annihilate the Yids.” One of the attackers was arrested. He told the police that he had become acquainted with the others during a skinhead gathering and that they had read a lot of antisemitic literature which they bought at book kiosks at the city. He was released because he is a minor.

Many memorials to Holocaust Jewish victims were desecrated in Ukraine. On 21 February paint was spilled on a memorial to Holocaust victims in Feodosia and “Heil Hitler” written on the memorial’s plaque. On a nearby bus station the perpetrators had painted “Beat the Yids, Save Russia.” On 23 March a memorial in Sevastopol was desecrated with slogans such as “Adolf Lives,” “Skinheads,” “White Power,” “Glory to Russia,” “Nazi” and “88 [Heil Hitler].” A suspect who had left his e-mail address on the memorial was arrested. The same memorial was painted with pink swastikas on 18 June. On 20 April (Hitler’s birthday), swastikas and “6,000,000 lies” were painted on a memorial in Odessa to 12,000 local Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

On 16 July the memorial to Holocaust victims at Babi Yar was damaged and swastikas were painted on a nearby building. A 23-year-old arrested for robbery on 31 October admitted during the interrogation to having desecrated the memorial. In addition, the Holocaust memorial in Pogrebishche was broken in early October; white paint was spilled on a menorah, part of a Holocaust memorial in Lvov in November; a Holocaust memorial in Donetsk was desecrated with swastikas and the SS sign on 20 December, the eve of its official unveiling; and on 31 December a plaque, commemorating Jews murdered by the Nazis in 1941 in Kharkov, was broken and a swastika painted on it.

Synagogues throughout Ukraine were stoned and/or desecrated with antisemitic graffiti. On 14 February, an antisemitic leaflet reading: “Chabad is the road to hell! No to Judeo-fascism... Today our children do not go to the theater [after the Soviet regime confiscated the building it served as a puppet theater]. Tomorrow they will grab a gun and carry out a pogrom” and demanding its return to the theater company, was glued on the door of the Central Brodsky Synagogue in Kiev. The leaflet contained the logo of the city branch of the Reform and Order Party (PRP). A similar but even more virulent letter with the signature of the head of the branch, Vladimir Bondarenko, was also mailed to the synagogue. PRP took part in the elections (both parliamentary and regional) as part of the PORA-PRP bloc. Antisemitic graffiti signed by PORA also appeared at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy of the National University. However, the bloc released a statement condemning the graffiti and dissociating itself from it.

On 14 February, the canard “We will slaughter you like pigs” was painted on the fence of a synagogue in Lvov. The slogans “Death to the kikes,” “Ukraine for Ukrainians” and “Whites Forward” appeared in several places in the city. On 17 April and 23 June stones were thrown at the windows of the Choral Synagogue in Kirovograd, and on 1 May at the synagogue of the Ner Tamid congregation of Progressive Judaism in Simferopol. On 11 May a man shouting antisemitic slogans tried to carve a swastika with an axe at the entrance to a synagogue in Dnepropetrovsk. He fled when he saw the guard approaching. In early May swastikas were painted on the synagogue in Zhitomir; on 27 July the words “Allah Akbar” were painted on its wall and on 22 September it was stoned. “Death to the Yids,” “Jews Must Die” (with spelling mistakes), a swastika, a crossed out Star of David and gallows were painted on a fence surrounding the ruins of a 16th century synagogue in Lvov on 27 October.

Jewish cemeteries were desecrated in May in Berdichev and near Zhitomir. In June two pupils, 16 and 14, were arrested and admitted to desecrating the latter cemetery; on 19 October, 18 tombstones were broken at the Jewish cemetery in Glukhov.

 

Propaganda

Antisemitic graffiti also appeared in the streets. In early June a Star of David on gallows and “Juden Kaput! Don’t Stop Hooligans” were painted at the underground passage in Kiev. On 31 July antisemitic graffiti such as “Palestine for Arabs, Yids − Babi Yar,” was painted on a fence of a building of the State Committee for Material Reserves in Dnepropetrovsk. The local Jewish community thinks that this was a response to an earlier pro-Israel demonstration held in the city. In October “Spit Here,” a Star of David and a crescent were painted on a building in Simferopol.

There was only a slight increase in the publication of antisemitic articles in 2006, despite it being an election year: 670 compared to 661 in 2005. The previous five years had witnessed a sharp progressive increase. Moreover, the proportion of antisemitic articles published in the first quarter of the year (i.e., the period of the election campaign) was no greater than that issued during the rest of the year. Since the great majority of printed antisemitic materials (newspapers, books, etc.) in Ukraine emanate from one establishment – MAUP (Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management − see General Analysis 2005), it might be concluded that MAUP has reached the limit of its capabilities, at least financially, in this endeavor.

MAUP authors call in their articles and books for a struggle against Zionism, which they identify with Nazism and consider a threat to the entire world; the aim of the Jews in Ukraine, and particularly of the Chabad organization, they claim, is to destabilize the country, while the goal of the Jewish nation is to rule the world and destroy all existing nations. Antisemitic articles appear in almost all issues of Personal and other newspapers and periodicals published by MAUP. For example, in issue no. 16 (19−25 April), Personal Plus contained an article headed “Was it Ritual Murder in Kiev?” implying that the Jews had participated in the murder of a pupil in the Podolsk area of Kiev for religious purposes and committed similar crimes in Russia.

MAUP also holds antisemitic conferences. In May, antisemitic and anti-Israel statements were made by participants at a conference attended by MAUP leaders, Ukrainian public figures and representatives from Arab countries. MAUP leaders accused "Rothschild soldiers" of genocide of the Ukrainian people. On 19 October, David Duke, former leader of American Ku Klux Klan, lectured at a MAUP discussion club in Kiev. He presented the Russian edition of his book, The Jewish Question through the Eyes of an American. My Research on Zionism, spoke about the Klan and urged Ukrainians to cooperate with his organization, the National Association for the Advancement of White People.

Since June 2006 MAUP has been selling its antisemitic newspapers and journals in several post offices in Kiev and at numerous book kiosks. In November it was discovered that antisemitic literature, such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as well as MAUP’s newspapers, were available at the store inside the Ukrainian parliament. MP Alexander Feldman asked for an investigation and all antisemitic publications were confiscated. Also in November the west Ukrainian newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu began serializing the book Adolf Hitler, the Founder of Israel, by Heneke Kardel, which claims that Hitler and his staff were Jews who launched World War II and the Holocaust.

On 15 February, the antisemitic monthly Idealist, issued by a virtual movement of the same name, published a “List of 330 Yids at the Ukrainian Parliament.” Beside each name was a Star of David, which the author explained indicated that they were either Jews or married to Jews. He adds: “Where there are no people − there are no problems. So, if the Yids disappear − the Yid problem will disappear too.”

In August, The Yids’ Occupation of Ukraine, by Mikhail Garashchuk, went on sale in several cities in Ukraine; it contains antisemitic text and caricatures, including a Star of David on a gallows.

 

Responses to Antisemitism

As in previous years, there was much rhetoric condemning antisemitism in general and MAUP in particular. In January, then Foreign Minister Boris Tarasiuk said on national TV that MAUP’s antisemitic activity was “unlawful and wrong” and that there was no place for antisemitism or any other form of racism in Ukraine. In early August, Assistant Prosecutor General Tatiana Korniakova stated during a press conference that the prosecutor’s office intended to conduct a thorough investigation of MAUP’s publications.

On 18 October President Viktor Iushchenko promised at a meeting with rabbis from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine that the authorities were committed to the struggle against antisemitism. Nevertheless, he signed a decree in favor of recognizing Ukrainian nationalist fighters during World War II as war veterans. These soldiers fought both against the Soviets and the Nazis and some of them took part in the murder of Jews. About a month later he told the press that he had instructed the prosecutor’s office and the Ukrainian Security Services to investigate the involvement of MAUP in inciting xenophobia.

Nevertheless, all attempts in 2006 (as in previous years) to influence the prosecutor’s office and other authorities to take action against MAUP were unsuccessful. A great part of this failure is due to Ukraine law. The authorities can only use the Law on Printed Mass Media, to stop the dissemination of ethnic hatred. However, according to another law, the accused in such a case must face a trial. Article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (“Dissemination of ethnic, racist or religious enmity and hatred”) contains the words “intentional actions,” i.e., intention to disseminate ethnic hatred must be proven during a trial, the accused must be convicted and only then can something be done. To prove intention in such cases is practically impossible.

In June the education minister closed seven branches of MAUP and in October, revoked 4,655 graduate diplomas; however, the official reason given was “administrative irregularities” without reference to MAUP’s antisemitic activity. A month later MAUP appealed the first decision and the licenses of these branches were renewed.

The Ukrainian media usually ignore antisemitic attacks and most of the incidents mentioned above were not reported on national TV or radio or in the press. In May Ukrainian Jewish leaders called on the authorities to ensure the safety of Jewish citizens and respond more effectively to antisemitic manifestations. However, local authorities and the police tend to classify antisemitic incidents as hooliganism and some local authorities even deny the existence of neo-Nazis and skinheads in their regions.