Pamphlet Calling Jews to Register in Eastern Ukraine Rebuked as Fake
Flyers allegedly being distributed by pro-Russian separatist forces in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk calling on Jews to register with the government are reportedly fraudulent.
In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League criticized the content of the flyers, which were allegedly distributed by three armed masked men on Tuesday, but suggested that that they may have been an attempt to discredit pro-Russian forces.
"We are skeptical about the flier's authenticity but the instructions clearly recall the Nazi era and have the effect of intimidating the local Jewish community," Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL National Director, told Mashable.
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"We have seen a series of cynical and politically manipulative uses of accusations of anti-Semitism in Ukraine over the past year," Foxman continued. "These perpetrators and their targets are opposing politicians and political movements, but the true victims are the Jewish communities. We strongly condemn the anti-Semitic content, but also all attempts to use anti-Semitism for political purposes."
The flyers, addressed to, "Ukraine citizens of Jewish nationality," instructs all people 16 years or older of Jewish descent to report to the Commissioner for Nationalities in the Donetsk Regional Administration building.
To "register," Jews must bring their ID and passport, along with "religious documents of family members, as well as documents establishing the rights to all real estate property that belongs to you, including vehicles."
Should they fail to comply, Jews are threatened with having their Ukrainian citizenship revoked and being "forced outside the country with a confiscation of property," in a document seemingly stamped by the Donetsk People's Republic and signed by "Your People's Governor Denis Pushilin."
Pushilin, a leader of the pro-Russian forces in Donetsk, has denied drafting the leaflet.
This is not the first incident concerning anti-Semitism that Ukraine has experienced since political demonstrations began in late 2013. In January, a Hebrew teacher was beaten while returning to his house after attending synagogue. In the last week of February, the night before Russian forces first arrived in Crimea, a synagogue in Simerfol was vandalized with swastikas and "death to the Jews" slurs painted on it. Earlier that month, a mob threw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Zaporizhiya.
Joseph Zissels, the president of the Ukrainian Jewish community known as the Vaad, told the Daily Beast in March, that he blamed the anti-Semitic vandalism on pro-Russian sympathizers.
"In general, in Ukraine there have not been many of these attacks and less than in Western Europe and Europe as a whole," said Zissels, calling the specific attack on the Simferopol synagogue "a provocation and a way to discredit the authorities in Kiev."
Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the leaflet as "beyond unacceptable."
"Any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities — from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of — there is no place for that," he said.
In Donetsk, Ukraine's third largest city, pro-Russian separatists have increasingly gained control of the city and earlier this week announced their intention to "seize control of infrastructure and the levers of state power." They have also called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to send troops in the region should Ukrainian forces attempt to confront them with force.
On Wednesday, roughly 100 pro-Russian separatists brought Russian and Donetsk Republic flags and banners to the local airport. Meanwhile, in Sloviansk, also in Eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists have taken over a television tower and said it will no longer transmit Ukrainian channels.
Estimates of the Ukrainian Jewish population range from 80,000 to 350,000. The former Soviet state has a population of roughly 45 million people.
