Greg Krasovsky:
Let's think about why Ukrainian Jews have been fleeing Ukraine since Ukrainian President Yanukovich's overthrow in February of 2012 at the behest of the Unites States.
First, the economy has tanked.
Second, the country is in a civil war in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose population refused to accept President Yanukovich's overthrow and opted for "governmental sovereignty" until political negotiations would create a federated (decentralized) Ukraine.
Third, the U.S. and its allies used and supported radical Ukrainian nationalist groups, like
- The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ("OUN"),
- The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ("UPA"),
- the Svoboda Party,
- The Azov "volunteer" military territorial battalion.
Fourth, the post Euromaydan (post 21.02.2014) Ukrainian governments have been busy trying to re-write history
Antisemitism in Ukraine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Ukraine#Independent_Ukraine
"The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths" at https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/164/160
Do we need any other reasons to explain the resurgence of Anti-Semitism in Ukraine?
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UKRAINIAN JEWISH LEADER SAYS COMMUNITY IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION
02 FEBRUARY 2017
"In time of crisis, the country's Jews appeal to Israel for support.
The future of Ukraine’s Jewish community “doesn’t look very bright” and is in danger of disappearing altogether, according to one of its leaders, who ended a four-day visit to Israel on Thursday.
Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the Kiev-based Ukrainian Jewish Committee, painted a bleak picture of a a struggling and scattered community to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday afternoon.
Estimates of the Jewish population in Ukraine vary wildly, but Dolinsky puts it at around 250,000.
...
“The Ukrainian Jewish community is in crisis,” Dolinsky states matter-of-factly, referring to the ongoing war in Donbass and the country’s dire economic situation as major factors.
While many Donbass Jews fled to Israel, Kiev or other areas of the country, some still remain in the conflict-stricken region.
The dispersed Jewish community lacks a solid foundation and, according to Dolinsky, is suffering an identity crisis.
“Either we should decide that the last one turns off the light, or we need to continue our struggle,” he tells the Post.
...
Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are among the struggles the community is grappling with. Dolinsky flags a failure by his country in monitoring antisemitism, partly stemming from a lack of any definition of antisemitism and hate crimes.
He points to numerous instances of vandalism of Holocaust mass graves and Jewish cemeteries, as well as continued glorification of nationalist Holocaust deniers and antisemites.
On New Year’s Day, for instance, a march to mark the birthday of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera saw participants yelling antisemitic slogans, including ‘Juden raus’ (Jews out!) in German. “It was guarded by hundreds of police... but after the march police told journalists they hadn’t seen any antisemitic incidents,” Dolinsky recalls.
According to Dolinsky, the glorification of Holocaust-denying Ukrainian nationalist groups is “getting worse by the day.”
“It’s an absolutely unacceptable situation to which Israel does not react,” he said. One idea is a ban on antisemites from entering Israel, he said."
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UKRAINIANS URGE JEWISH WORLD TO HELP PREVENT LOOTING OF HOLOCAUST GRAVES.
03 FEBRUARY 2017
"Gold, teeth, jewelry and children's skulls are some of the item reportedly robbed from mass graves.
Ukrainian businessmen in the US and Europe are appealing to Jewish communities across the world to help put a stop to the looting of mass graves of Holocaust victims in Ukraine.
In recent years dozens of incidents have been recorded on the outskirts of cities such as Zhytomyr and Berdychiv. Thieves have dug up the graves of Jews murdered in the Holocaust in search of gold, teeth, jewelry and children’s skulls. The latter have been found at markets in town and cities, according to a statement released on Thursday by the European and Americans forums of Russian-speaking Jews.
The groups have for the past few years been invested in protecting and strengthening mass graves in Ukraine to prevent desecration and theft.
“Unfortunately, in the Ukraine there are many mass graves which are not sufficiently protected, where thousands of Jews were executed during the Holocaust,” said Michael Yehudanin, president of the European Forum of Russian-speaking Jews.
“Seventy years after these terrible murders, their graves are being desecrated and looted."
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WIESENTHAL CENTER: NAZI WAR CRIMINAL PROBES NEARLY DOUBLE FROM PREVIOUS YEAR
28 JANUARY 2017
"Annual report lauds US and Germany for efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.
The status report, titled “Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals” covers the period of April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016, and presents comprehensive statistics on the number of Holocaust perpetrators convicted and indicted, as well as figures on new and ongoing investigations all over the world.
The report was authored by the center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who noted that the extension of life expectancy has made it possible to continue efforts to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice, even years after their crimes.
...
The report stated that between 2001 and 2016, 103 Nazi perpetrators have been convicted in court, the majority in Italy (46) and the United States (39). Those countries also filed the majority of the 103 indictments against Nazi criminals during the same period.
Zuroff allocated grades – ranging from A to F – to those countries which are dealing with this issue, as well as those which aren’t – but he thinks should be. The US and Germany were at the top of the list, both with an A grade, followed by Italy, which got a B.
Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Ukraine all got F’s. The former two countries failed due to their refusal in principle to investigate, because of legal or ideological restrictions. Meanwhile Lithuania and Ukraine failed on the basis that though there are no legal obstacles in these countries to the investigation and prosecution of suspected Nazi war criminals, they have failed to do so, primarily due to an absence of political will and/or a lack of the requisite resources and/or expertise."
