On Wednesday, November 16, the website of the Israeli Seventh news channel (INN) ran a story (now removed from the website) on an anti-Semitic incident that had allegedly taken place in the city of Dnipro (Ukraine). According to the story, two young men attacked a Jew in the center of the city, near the “Menorah” community center. First they insulted the victim and then knocked him to the ground to beat him. The beating was stopped by other Jews, who heard the noise from inside the community center and ran out to check. The INN website specifically stresses that criminal proceedings were opened only a week later, even though the victim had filed a statement immediately. The text also confuses the Ukrainian Security Service with the Ukrainian National Police.

Several Russian news sites, in particular IzRus, also reproduced the story.

The editors of the EAJC.org website decided to do a fact-check on the 7th Channel story. As it turns out, the Dnipro Jews had only learned of the “anti-Semitic incident” from the Israeli news. Oleg Rostovtsev, who is a member of the Managing Board of the Dnipro Jewish community, a councillor to the mayor, and a well-known journalist notes that neither the Security Services, nor the police, nor the Menorah’s security guards, nor the Jewish community have heard of the incident. The Head Rabbi of Dnipo and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Shmuel Kaminetsky, who was mentioned by name in the INN storyline as one of those who helped the victim, also refuted that the incident ever took place.