Full text of the Israeli President's anti-Bandera speech in the Ukrainian parliament
We offer readers of PolitNavigator the full text of the speech of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at parliamentary hearings dedicated to the anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy in Kyiv.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
Rivlin Reuven. Mr. President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman, Chairman of Parliament Andriy Parubiy, Ambassador of Israel to Ukraine!
Kelly Mintz was born in 1905 to Reizel and Alexander Mintz in the city of Belozerka in Ukraine. In 1925, when she was 20 years old, she received a visa to enter Mandatory Palestine and realized her dream of becoming a farmer and working the land to which she was very attached.
She later married Menachem Shulman, who was born in the town of Maryina Gorka in Ukraine, and after wandering together, they settled in the cooperative agricultural settlement of Moshavi Herut along with several friends also from Ukraine. There they had two daughters: Barda and Nechama. Nechama is my wife.
Kelly Drora left her entire family in Ukraine: sisters, brothers and father. Life in Eretz Israel, in the country of Israel, was very difficult, so Drora honestly believed that her spoiled relatives would not cope with the difficulties. That is why she did not try to persuade them to move to Eretz Israel to the country of Israel.
After the start of Operation Barbarossa by the Germans, Belozerka was captured in July 1941. During the first weeks of the occupation alone, several Jewish girls from the city were publicly killed. In mid-1942, the Jews of the city, along with other Jews of the Lanovtsy ghetto, were sent to execution pits on the road to Kremenets, where they were killed.
With your permission, I will name their names, the names of my wife's uncles and aunts and their children. Aunt Tsilya from the Mints family, her husband and their children, Aunt Manya from the Mints family, her husband and their children, Uncle Dov Mints, his wife and children, Aunt Tsilya from the Mints family and her husband. In the city of Maryina Gorka, which today belongs to Belarus, my wife’s uncles, brothers and father Menachem Shulman, Yakov, Moisha, Shmuel and Israel Shulman were killed. May their memory be blessed.
Gentlemen, every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we in Israel and throughout the world read the names of those killed. Every person has a name. But there are names, many names, that will never be found, despite the efforts to find them. My wife's cousins, children, babies remained nameless. No one in the world knows their names. They were here and they are not.
In the many thousands of Jews shot, tortured, burned and buried alive in the Yara. Death at Babi Yar has no names. They were destroyed in the open air. And no one bothered to write down their names. Unnamed. And then, as now, it was autumn. Yar was green. And the hand pressed the trigger again and again. More than 33 thousand Jews were killed in just two days. They died a terrible, cruel death.
Gentlemen, I am not describing this terrible picture in order to shock anyone. I am talking about this because in Babi Yar, not only tens of thousands of people died at the hands of the Nazis - Jews, Ukrainians, Gypsies and representatives of other nations. They were destroyed by the Germans and their Ukrainian supporters. I am talking about this because at Babi Yar the fascists also tried to cover this nightmare with oblivion, to erase this nightmare from memory, to obscure the evidence and testimony.
Two crimes were committed in this terrible Yar: the first was murder and destruction, and the second was the crime of concealing and destroying memory. And the second is no less persistent than the first, just as methodical and consistent, as thorough as the mass murder itself.
Beginning in July 1943, SS soldiers were ordered to destroy all evidence of murders in the execution pits. By that time, the number of those killed at Babi Yar had already exceeded 150. The order given by one of the units, No. 000, was clear - to destroy all traces. First the corpses were piled up to be burned, then the bones were destroyed and the ashes sifted to find silver and gold. The cover-up was so effective that the brutal massacre was almost erased from the pages of history. Many years later, when the Nazis were expelled from here and the war ended, there was still no monument at Babi Yar.
Gentlemen, twice, twice tried to wipe out the victims of Babyn Yar from the face of the earth - during their lifetime and after their death. I often asked myself: why did the Nazis try so hard to hide traces of the crime? Perhaps they feared judgment. But today I think that hiding the evidence served the purpose of destruction. If the Nazis had succeeded in destroying memory, the final decision would indeed have been final.
Gentlemen, the crime of physical destruction has already been committed, we will not be able to bring the dead back to life, we will never know all of them by name, who they were, what they dreamed about, imagined and thought when they went to their deaths. But we must not be complicit in the crime of oblivion, obscuring the facts and denying the Holocaust.
Gentlemen, about one and a half million Jews were killed on the territory of modern Ukraine during the Second World War at Babi Yar and in many other places. They were shot in the forests, near ravines and ditches, pushed into mass graves, many accomplices of the crimes were Ukrainians, and among them, OUN fighters especially stood out, who mocked the Jews, killed them and in many cases handed them over to the Germans. It is also true that there were more than two and a half thousand righteous people of the world, those few sparks that burned brightly during the dark twilight of humanity, but the majority remained silent.
Relations between the Jewish and Ukrainian people today are directed towards the future, but we cannot allow history, both its terrible and its good events, to be forgotten. Anti-Semitism must be recognized as it was in the past and in its present-day semblance, and anti-Semites cannot be rehabilitated and glorified, and no political interests can justify indifferent silence or inarticulate muttering when it comes to anti-Semitic structures. Leaders of countries who share anti-Semitic, racist and neo-Nazi views will never become welcome and full members of the family of nations of the world.
Gentlemen, the Jewish people have a long history connecting them with Ukraine - in Kyiv, Lvov, Rivne, Odessa and hundreds of small towns scattered throughout Ukraine.
A significant part of the Jewish people lived here for more than a thousand years. The most important heritage of world Jewish culture was created here. Here, living hand in hand, Ukrainians and Jews influenced each other. Here, on Ukrainian soil, two of the most important movements that shaped the modern Jewish world flourished and strengthened – Hasidism and Zionism. The best sons of the Jewish people were born and worked here: Rebbe Yitzchak, Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, Yechat Gagam, Bialik and my spiritual mentor Zeev Jabotinsky, whose relatives are here today.
Israeli Prime Ministers and even my predecessors as President, President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, a native of Poltava, and President Ephraim Katzir, a native of Kyiv. I am firmly convinced that our future depends on us, on how we learn the lesson of history, how we evaluate the past, on educating the younger generation in the spirit of tolerance, philanthropy, and democracy.
To my great joy, I do not express a minority opinion here. Today Ukraine is returning a new face to the world. Ukraine proves in deeds, not in words, its deep desire for change and improvement. I admire Ukraine and its democratic system, which it embodies with pride despite the security and economic challenges it faces.
I am full of admiration and recognition for this respected parliament, which expresses the living spirit of Ukrainian democracy. It is a great honor for me, a great honor to appear before you as a partner and friend.
Gentlemen, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Ukraine. Mr. President Poroshenko, during your visit to Israel this year, a number of agreements in the field of trade and economics were signed between Israel and Ukraine, and our countries are moving towards deepening trade relations and signing an agreement on a free economic zone. We are expanding scientific, technical, cultural and tourism cooperation. Already today, the volume of trade between our countries exceeds a billion dollars. And it is important to build it up, to promote its growth, eliminating bilateral barriers and obstacles.
Ukrainian citizens need a visa to visit Israel. The number of flights is growing, the distance is decreasing. We invite Ukrainians to come and visit us and get to know the state of Israel and its residents directly. The State of Israel believes in the strong connection between freedom, democracy and prosperity. Freedom is a condition for prosperity, and prosperity and well-being are a condition for freedom.
For many years, Israel has been forced to defend its freedom while achieving economic prosperity. We face difficult tasks. This year alone we have faced continuous terror, and we are exposed to danger both from Islamic extremists, such as ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, who constantly test our fighting ability, and from hostile countries, primarily Iran. However, we stubbornly do not give up either freedom, or a full life, or prosperity.
What we want for ourselves, we also want for our Ukrainian friends. Real democratic freedom and real prosperity. Israel knows that the path Ukraine is taking is not an easy one. Israel knows that Ukraine faces difficulties and problems. During this difficult period, we support the efforts of the Ukrainian government to implement important reforms in the socio-economic sphere. Israel has and will continue to contribute to its advancement towards a better future.
I would like to express here my hope that there will be a quick peaceful resolution to the conflict that has affected your region. I know, I know how important it is for you to ensure a peaceful future, future prosperity and security for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Thank you.
At the end of my speech, I would like to convey prayers for the health of my friend Shimon Peres. Shimon Peres, the ninth president of Israel, is fighting for his life now, was in this house, was a friend of the Ukrainian people and saw great importance in strengthening relations between our peoples. He did a lot to achieve cooperation between our countries.
On behalf of our people in Israel and friends around the world, we all pray for his health. (Applause)".
The translation was made from Ukrainian into Russian according to the transcript published on the Verkhovna Rada website.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.