The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is deeply outraged by the provocative anti-Semitism statements made by Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, at a press conference on February 2.

Statements that Ukraine today is ruled by "not quite the right people," an ironic allusion to "the Jewish Cossacks" and "miserable representatives of a great people" in this regard are reviving the hideous tradition of blaming political opponents for having an "inappropriate" national origin. Such speculations are addressed to the basest human instincts. Regardless of the intentions of those who made these statements, they may cause an eruption of hatred, by and large aimed not at those against whom they are addressed personally but against the Jewish community.

EAJC strongly condemns the use of anti-Semitic rhetoric as a weapon to stoke hatred in political confrontation. EAJC is calling upon the authorities and the general public of the countries involved in the peace process in Ukraine to give a proper assessment to these statements by leaders of the self-proclaimed People's Republics.

Julius Meinl,
EAJC President