Euroasian Jewish News

EAJC General Council Member Speaks at Round Table on Xenophobia

On April 27, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) General Council member, leader of the EAJC xenophobia monitoring and analysis program Vyacheslav Likhachev spoke at a round table titles “The Role of the State, Political Parties, and Ukrainian Society in Combating Manifestations of Xenophobia, Racial Intolerance and Extremism.”

In his speech, the expert noted that “the xenophobic position of the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda party opens the entire opposition up for criticism – not only from the government but from civil society in general and from international organizations.”

Stating that “unchecked propaganda of anti-Semitism from parliamentary pulpits as if legitimates xenophobic rhetoric,” Likhachev is certain that it is in the interests of the opposition itself to “take a clear stance on Svoboda's anti-Semitism.”

“The question of stance towards xenophobic statements and aggressive actions of their partners in the opposition,” the expert noted, “is a kind of test on European values for moderation national-democratic and liberal Ukrainian parties. At the same time, he stressed: “'Svoboda' received 12% of the votes not because xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideas are very popular in Ukraine, but because they are in the opposition. Svoboda's success is in the voices of those opposing the current government, a result of how our society is currently polarized.”

Yana Salakhova, aide to the Head of the International Organization for Migration Representative Office on Countering Xenophobia, spoke at the round table with a report on hate crime in Ukraine.

According to Salakhova, “Muslim and Jewish cultural monuments are vandalized most often in Ukraine. Representatives of African, Asian, and Near Eastern countries are the first choice of targets for street attacks,”

The round table “The Role of the State, Political Parties, and Ukrainian Society in Combating Manifestations of Xenophobia, Racial Intolerance and Extremism” was organized by the international organization “International Union” and gathered representatives from almost 40 communities of national minorities.