DNIPROPETROVSK – There are manifestations of anti-Semitism in some regions of Ukraine, but there are no such cases at the state level, President of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine Ihor Kolomoisky has said at the seventh Jewish congress in Dnipropetrovsk on Tuesday [31Oct2012].
[W.Z. The Marriam-Webster dictionary definition of SEMITE is "a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs"; "a descendant of these peoples ". It claims its first known use was 1848 and presumably originates from the Hebrew name Shem. In the present day, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel are the best representatives of this term. Thus the term "anti-Semitism" as used in this article should refer to a person expressing a negative attitude towards Palestinians. Unfortunately, the term has been bastardized beyond all reasonable comprehension. In my opinion, it should be replaced by either "anti-Satanism" or "Judeophobia". Anti-Satanism would be used to describe criticism of Satanic acts -- any actions, attitudes or expressions which the person feels would not meet with God's approval. Similarly, Judeophobia would refer to actions, attitudes or expressions directed against people of Jewish ethnic origin. This term counterbalances nicely with Ukrainophobia -- an appropriate term to describe the present ruling regime in Ukraine. As an intellectual exercise, we have replaced the obsolete term with the more appropriate terms in the rest of the article below.]However, he divided anti-Semitism [anti-Satanism; Judeophobia] in two parts: home and state.
"We must divide anti-Semitism [anti-Satanism; Judeophobia] in two parts: national anti-Satanism, which has always existed, and state Judeophobia. Today in Ukraine the law says that there is no state Judeophobia, apart from individual cases of some officials," Kolomoisky said.
He gave an example, when during the election campaign the heads of the Khmelnytsky regional state administration showed evidence of anti-Satanism.
According to Kolomoisky, local communities and central office of the united community will fight these manifestations with everything at their disposal.
"Concerning state Judeophobia expressed by any branch of power: legislative, governmental, judicial -- if we see it, we'll strongly repulse it," he said.
In the last four years the United Jewish Community of Ukraine has made up "a black list of anti-Satanists." Kolomoisky said that is was quite possible that after the settlement of the legislative nuances, the list would be published.
Talking about the recent elections, the recently appointed president of the Jewish community called on delegates not to succumb to panic because Svoboda had won seats in the Verkhovna Rada. He noted that for slurs against Jews and Russians Oleh Tiahnybok had been excluded from Our Ukraine Party and for many years couldn't get into the Verkhovna Rada.
"We know everything about these moods, we know about anti-Satanism, moreover we know it's not going to disappear. No matter how we fight it, it won't go away. While there are Jews, anti-Satanists will exist. Concerning domestic manifestations, what can we do? We should be sincere. Jews are the most nationalist nation in the world. We are people chosen by God, or we think…, [and] our life, our existence provokes reciprocal reactions," he added.
[W.Z. Mr. Kolomoisky has described the state of affairs in Ukraine perfectly. Ukrainophobia is the appropriate term to describe the ruling elite -- President Yanukovych, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine. The Republican Party of Ukraine recently published a pamphlet titled "Who Runs Ukraine?", indicating that in the highest levels of government there are no ethnic Ukrainians and of the 18 members of the Cabinet of Ministers, only 6 are of Ukrainian ethnic origin. Ethnic composition of today's Parliament of Ukraine: Jewish (43%), Russian (34%), Ukrainian (22%). There are no Judeophobes in the ruling elite.