Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at Jerusalem's Western Wall, November 14, 2007
Photo: AP, AP
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Yushchenko Smooths over Award Gaff in Israel
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko completes his visit to Israel today. The culmination of his three-day visit was his address to the Knesset. Speaker of the Knesset Dahlia Itzik gave Yushchenko a warm welcome, calling him the leader of a “young democracy” and recalling that Ukraine was the home of a vibrant Jewish culture and birthplace of second Israeli president Itzhak Ben-Zvi and prime minister Golda Meir.
Itzik went on to say that she was concerned with the growing number of displays of anti-Semitism, nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine and Yushchenko's awarding of the title Hero of Ukraine to nationalist leader Roman Shukhevich, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War Two. Itzik called “the most shocking fact” the anti-Semitism of the well-known state Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, where the management's support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call to “wipe Israel from the face of the earth” attracted wide attention a few years ago.
Yushchenko responded by comparing the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples, both of whom came out of slavery. He mentioned that the first holocaust museum in Eastern Europe was being built in Ukraine and reminded his audience of the Torah scrolls he brought with him to Israel, which had been confiscated in Soviet times and kept in the Ukrainian national archive.
Yushchenko wanted to visit Israel in the spring of this year for the holocaust memorial day. Ukraine has long sought international recognition of the artificially-induced famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as genocide. Israel refused Yushchenko's request at that time, citing the busy schedule of Israeli leaders. No acknowledgement of the Ukrainian genocide was made during this trip. Israel has also ignored Armenia's request to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 15, 2007
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