KIEV, May 20. /TASS/. Leaders of Jewish communities and organizations in Ukraine have expressed concern over growing anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the country and called on the authorities to take measures to stop their further growth, directors of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee Eduard Dolinsky said on Sunday.
In a statement passed by a meeting of the leaders of Jewish communities, they expressed "profound concern over growing anti-Semitic incidents, manifestations of xenophobia and intolerance," he wrote on his Facebook account, citing the document. "To call on law enforcement agencies, including police, the Security Service, prosecution bodies, to show responsibility in exposing and punishing those involved in anti-Semitic crimes, vandalizing Holocaust sites and hatred-driven crimes."
Apart from that, the statement calls on lawmakers of the Verkhovna Rada, or Ukraine’s national parliament, to adopt "the definition of anti-Semitism offered by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance." It also calls on the Ukrainian government to join that alliance.
According to Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine nearly doubled in 2017 on the previous year on the backdrop of glorification of nationalist leaders responsible for the massacre and expulsion of Jews during World War II. Israeli experts say Ukraine is the leader in terms of anti-Semitic incidents among other countries of the former Soviet Union. With anti-Semitic propaganda dominating the country’s politics, the Ukrainian authorities are taking no efficient actions to stop anti-Semitism, qualifying anti-Semitic incidents as mere hooliganism rather than hate crimes.