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Ok, I normally don't do this and I will probably regret doing this, but here's a thread on how the very real threat of antisemitism in Ukraine is getting misrepresented in the West.
The main exhibit: this appalling letter to an Orthodox Jewish community leader.
The main exhibit: this appalling letter to an Orthodox Jewish community leader.
What you think if you don't read Ukrainian: Ukrainian police top brass are antisemitic and randomly profile Jews in small towns.
What is actually true: Head of a regional police department in a Western region is antisemitic and profiling a local Orthodox Jewish organization.
What is actually true: Head of a regional police department in a Western region is antisemitic and profiling a local Orthodox Jewish organization.
(Full disclosure: I am a slav-passing atheist Jew not from the region, so I may have some bias both ways).
Of course that cop is also under multiple investigations for corruption, but that's par for the course in Ukraine. https://censor.net.ua/ua/news/3192052/deputaty_vymagayut_vid_premyerministra_zvilnyty_politseyiskogo_chynovnyka_myhayila_banka?fbclid=IwAR3rfYwpK30juic29ND22iU9S_5H6WtOvAhzNBvQgxHh90408QY6xh0W0GA
Of course that cop is also under multiple investigations for corruption, but that's par for the course in Ukraine. https://censor.net.ua/ua/news/3192052/deputaty_vymagayut_vid_premyerministra_zvilnyty_politseyiskogo_chynovnyka_myhayila_banka?fbclid=IwAR3rfYwpK30juic29ND22iU9S_5H6WtOvAhzNBvQgxHh90408QY6xh0W0GA
Something the purveyors of "Ukraine as an antisemitic hellhole" narrative won't tell you is that a ruling party MP elected in a first past the post district in the area, who is a Jew, is now lobbying for that cop to get fired.
Not quite the same as WW2, is it?
Not quite the same as WW2, is it?
The cop might well keep his job, but this is somewhat a different problem: cops are a corporation in Ukraine, willing to entrench their power, led by powerful minister Avakov (who is an Armenian from Kharkiv with troubling ties to white nationalists).
I am not saying Ukraine is free of antisemitism: electing Zelensky did not end it any more than electing Obama ended anti-black racism in the US.
But the government is fighting it, like when they arrested two neo-nazis for plotting to attack a synagogue. https://lb.ua/society/2020/05/09/457170_sbu_zayavila_zaderzhanii_dvuh.html
But the government is fighting it, like when they arrested two neo-nazis for plotting to attack a synagogue. https://lb.ua/society/2020/05/09/457170_sbu_zayavila_zaderzhanii_dvuh.html
Of course this kind of nuance will be lost on those who get their news about Ukraine from the likes of Eduard Dolinsky, who also claimed Zelensky isn't really a Jew. https://twitter.com/Mortis_Banned/status/1120275770818080768
Of course, this narrative trickles to the usual "anti-imperialist" suspects who believe (or want their readers to believe) the US supports a neo-nazi junta in Ukraine, shedding more and more context along the way.
Thing is, them trying to erode Western support for Ukraine actually empowers those neo-nazis and antisemites, who, together with the pro-Russian crowd, claim Ukraine is under attack by George Soros and his "kids" - meaning Western-funded NGO workers and human rights watchdogs.
I don't know why I needed to write this, it definitely won't have a 1/100th of the impact of the Dolinskys and Greenwalds.
Maybe just wanted to get this off my chest.
Maybe just wanted to get this off my chest.
