The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress General Council Chairman, Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (VAAD) Ukraine Josef Zisels met with Pavel Klyamkin, the First Deputy of the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, as part of a delegation of leaders of the Ukrainian Jewish community. The meeting was the Ministry's answer to the Josef Zisels' August appeal to the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Constantine Grischenko, which included a proposal to discuss the relevant problems of Near East regulation and Ukraine's position at the Durban 3 conference at the UN General Assembly.

Among the participants also were:

• Anatoliy Podolsky – EAJC General Council member, Director of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies;
• Arkday Monastyrsky – President of the Ukrainian Jewish Forum, Director of the Jewish Fund of Ukraine;
• Evgeniy Ziskind – EAJC General Council member, Executive Director of the Jewish Religious Community Union of Ukraine;
• Leonid Finberg – EAJC General Council member, Director of the Judaica Center;
• Rabbi Yonathan Markovich – representative of the Or Avner Foundation in Ukraine;
• Rabbi Alexander Duchovny – EAJC General Council member, leader of the Union of Progressive Judaic Communities of Ukraine.

Josef Zisels voiced the joint EAJC and VAAD Ukraine position on the situation surrounding the possible UN General Assembly vote on the unilateral decision of the Palestinian administration, and on the acknowledgement of Palestine in the so-called “1967 borders” with a capital in Jerusalem by the UN. The position can be split into the following points:

• The Jewish community of Ukraine and the EAJC do not deny the Palestinians' right to create their own state;
• the only way to create a Palestinian state is through direct two-sided negotiations between the Palestinian administration and the government of Israel;
• if the UN GA vote leads to an increase in tension and to a new round of the military conflict in the Near East, the moral responsibility for this will be shared by all states that supported the provocative request of the Palestinian administration.

In his reply, Pavel Klyamkin voiced his understanding of the worry of the Jewish community representatives, underscored the special relationship between Ukraine and the State of Israel, and confirmed the unchanged position of Ukraine on solving conflicts exclusively through direct negotiations.

Josef Zisels additionally directed the attention of the participants of the meeting on the humanitarian and human aspects of the discussion, and stressed their certain dominance over tactical and even strategic aspects of the problem.
Rabbi Yonathan Markovich, rabbi Alexander Duchovny, Anatoliy Podolsky, Arkadiy Monastyrsky, and Leonid Finberg also voiced their positions.
During the second half of the meeting, Pavel Klyamkin replied to the request of the Jewish community not to send a Ukrainian delegation to the provocative anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic conference Durban 3, and voiced the position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the subject:

• Ukraine will not be present on a political level at the Durban 3 conference;
• Ukrainian representatives will not participate in the discussions of this conference;
• there might be a technical observer from Ukraine at the conference, solely for the purpose of writing a report on the situation.

In his arguments on the topic, Josef Zisels noted the extreme importance of this topic for Ukraine, because it was after Durban I that Ukraine saw a powerful anti-Semitic campaign led by MAUP rector Georgiy Schokin.

 

To conclude the meeting, Leonid Finberg proposed that the embassies of Ukraine be provided with books on Jewish studies.

Pavel Klyamkin promised to pass the documents and opinions of the Jewish community to the leaders of Ukraine and Minister Grischenko in particular.