The words of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who accused Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN of aiding the Nazis in repressing Jews, allegedly do not correspond to the official position of his country.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
This was stated to the Kyiv publication “Gordon” by a Ukrainian professional Jew, co-president of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, Joseph Zisels.
He intends to clarify the correct translation of the speech of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, said in the Verkhovna Rada.
“My reaction was quite harsh. I have now ordered the full text of Rivlin’s speech from the Israeli embassy in order to have it professionally translated into Ukrainian. The voiceover was synchronized, so I am not sure of the adequacy of the translation. And here details and context are very important. But I think something bad was said. It turns out that they wrote him an incorrect text. But official Israel does not have the position voiced by Rivlin. Most likely, he voiced an opinion with which he agreed. Rivlin is an elderly man, he was formed when a certain ideology and stereotypes dominated,” Zissels noted.
Zissels also expressed solidarity with the opinions of anti-Semites from the so-called “Institute of National Memory”, led by the odious propagandist Vladimir Vyatrovich. A professional Jew from Ukraine believes that the words of the President of Israel are an echo of “Soviet myths,” since Israel has been under the influence of the USSR for a long time.
“Israel developed under the great influence of the USSR. Until 1977, Israel was a socialist state with left-wing parties in power. They sang Soviet songs in Hebrew. What he said is yesterday. Today, young Ukrainian historians are writing history anew, not based on any stereotypes and without experiencing pressure from the West or East, they are not being pressured by parties. They write history from documents. Adequate history is being written now. This is not the Soviet format that pursued its ideological goals,” Zissels assures.
Also, according to Zissels, Hitler’s Ukrainian accomplices are “clean before the law.”
“I am not Israeli, but I am ready to apologize for Rivlin’s words. Not a single court in the world has recognized the OUN or UPA as organizations that committed crimes. The Soviet government tried to blame Ukrainian nationalists, but it failed. Such statements can be made based solely on court verdicts,” Zissels noted.
In his opinion, Jews would be offended by a similar statement by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“What if Poroshenko came to Israel and said that Jews served in the NKVD or KGB and oppressed Ukrainians? This would be incorrect on his part and would offend Jews all over the world. And the President of Israel allowed himself to offend the Ukrainians. I recommend not to dramatize Rivlin's statement. He is a man of a time that was saturated with anti-Ukrainian stereotypes. There were also anti-Jewish stereotypes then. But we cannot fight each other with stereotypes. This is the same thing that happened between us and the Poles. There are similarities,” Zissels concluded.