This is an old revision of the document!
wiki oct25
There were a number of right-wing nationalist and antisemitic groups in Ukraine in the 1990s. Among the most conspicuous was the MAUP, a private university with extensive financial ties to Islamic regimes. In the March 2006 issue (No. 9/160) of the Personnel Plus magazine by MAUP, an article “Murder Is Unveiled, the Murderer Is Unknown?” revives false accusations from the Beilis Trial, stating that the jury recognized the case as ritual murder by persons unknown, even though it found Beilis himself not guilty.[36]
The incidents of antisemitism declined during mid 1990s.[37] A 2014 report published by Vyacheslav Likhachev of the National Minority Rights Monitoring Group revealed that the antisemitic vandalism and violence peaked in 2005–2006, and declined since then.[38]
In the early 2010s Jewish organizations in and outside of Ukraine have accused the political party All-Ukrainian Union “Svoboda” of open Nazi sympathies and being antisemitic.[39] In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress listed the party as neo-Nazi.[40] Leader of Svoboda, Oleh Tyahnybok has said that a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia” controls Ukraine and has attacked what he says is the “criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine”.[41][42] “Svoboda” itself has denied being antisemitic.[43]
In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections “Svoboda” won its first seats in the Ukrainian Parliament,[44] garnering 10.4% of the popular vote and the 4th most seats among national political parties.[45] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the party got 6 parliamentary seats (it won 4.7% of the popular vote in this election).[46]
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election other parties joined Svoboda to form a united party list, these were the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh, Right Sector and National Corps.[47] But in the election this combination won 2.2% of the votes, less than half of the 5% election threshold, and thus no parliamentary seats via the national party list.[48] Svoboda itself did win one constituency seat, in Ivano-Frankivsk.[48][49] Euromaidan and War in Ukraine edit
According to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Jews supported the 2013–2014 Euromaidan revolution which ousted Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency of Ukraine. The organisation says few antisemitic incidents were recorded during this period.[50][51] According to Eduard Dolinsky [uk], executive director of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Ukrainian Jews overwhelmingly supported the 2014 Euromaidan, however, its aftermath led to the rise of antisemitism and social acceptance of previously marginal far-right groups, together with government's policy of historical negationism in regard to the WWII ethnic cleansing committed by the Ukrainian nationalist movement against the country's minorities.[52][53] After the revolution Ukrainian Jews making aliyah from Ukraine reached 142% higher during the first four months of 2014 compared to the previous year.[54] 800 people arrived in Israel over January–April, and over 200 signed up for May 2014.[54] Also at least 100 Jews left the country and went to Israel assisted by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.[55]
In April 2014, a leaflet was handed out to the Jewish community in the city Donetsk as if by the pro-Russian separatists who had taken over control of the city. The leaflet contained an order to every Jew over the age of 16 to register as a Jew, and also to declare all the property they own, or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated, ostensibly as retribution for being Ukrainian loyalists.[56] Denis Pushilin, head of the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk People's Republic, said it was a fake that was meant to discredit his movement.
Donetsk Chief Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski also claims it was a hoax, and said that “Anti-Semitic incidents in the Russian-speaking east were rare, unlike in Kyiv and western Ukraine”.[57] An April 2014 listing of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine in Haaretz no incidents outside this “Russian-speaking east” were mentioned.[58] In February 2015, Alexander Zakharchenko, then leader of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic” declared that Ukraine would be ruled by “poor representatives” of the Jewish people.[59]
There were also cases of exploitation of antisemitism and “the Jewish question” in propaganda campaigns, such as speculations used by the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych in the first (November 2013) days of the Euromaidan mass protests.[38] The conclusion of the (earlier mentioned) National Minority Rights Monitoring Group report describes a peak of antisemitic incidents in 2014, probably due to the instabilily in Ukraine.[38] In March 2014, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich accused Russian sympathizers and nationalists of staging antisemitic provocations to be blamed on Ukrainians. He claimed that these provocations were used by the Russian Federation to justify its 2014 invasion of Crimea.[60] According to a 2016 report by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, there was a significant drop in xenophobic violence in Ukraine, with the exception of the Russian-occupied areas in Eastern Ukraine.[61]