Euro-asian jewish congress

ANTISEMITISM IN EURASIA AND AUSTRALIA

2008/2009

Annual Report on Antisemitism by

Euro-Asian Jewish Congress

Issue # 7

Edited by Vyacheslav Likhachev

KYIV

2009

SPECIAL REPORT: ANTI-ISRAELI ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS IN POST-SOVIET TERRITORY DURING THE CAST LEAD OPERATION

by Vyacheslav Likhachev and Semen Charny 3

AUSTRALIA

by Jeremy Jones 13

BELARUS

by Yakov Basin 24

MOLDOVA 26

POLAND 28

ROMANIA 29

RUSSIA 32

by Semen Charny

TURKEY 50

UKRAINE

by Vyacheslav Likhachev 52

APPENDIX. ANTISEMITISM: PROPOSITIONS ON BUILDING THE CONCEPT

by Viktor Dashevsky, Semen Charny 58

SPECIAL REPORT: ANTI-ISRAELI ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS IN POST-SOVIET SPACE

DURING THE CAST LEAD OPERATION

Vyacheslav Likhachev and Semen Charny

The anti-terroristic operation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza Strip in December, 2008 – January, 2009, the Cast Lead, caused an outburst of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic actions in the world, including in the post-Soviet territory. In comparison with the outburst of anti-Semitic manifestations, even criminal ones, that swept through Western Europe, Latin America and some Asian counties, the situation in the post-Soviet countries was quite calm. But the outburst of anti-Israeli emotions in the post-Soviet territory was followed by anti-Semitic statements and incidents. Besides, serious attention should be drawn to anti-Israeli manifestation dynamics in CIS, which is related to the situation in the Middle East in the last ten years. The negative dynamics becomes obvious when we remember the beginning of the Second Intifada, the Protective Wall Operation or the so-called Second Lebanon War with its reaction to the Cast Lead Operation. We can say that the anti-Israeli manifestations in the context of the recent Gaza operation were as noticeable as those in the context of the Second Lebanon War. It was seen exceptionally clearly in the Muslim countries and regions, but the tendency was also noted in all the post-Soviet countries.

This dynamic is quite worrying. The post-Soviet ummah (the Muslim community), including their official spiritual leaders, is becoming more and more involved with the processes in the entire Islamic world, which includes the extension of the influence of anti-Israeli discourse. This leads to a rather dangerous trend. Radical Islamic groups are most active with anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric; they use the Gaza operation as a convenient reason, easily understood by the Islamic masses, to promote their ideas and summon up supporters. Such campaigns win sympathy among the Muslim “grassroots” since their elder generation still remembers the Soviet “anti-Zionist” propaganda, which included some anti-Semitic messages, while the youth have a black-and-white vision of the world values. Official spiritual leaders have to react by embracing anti-Israeli statements simply in order not to leave the initiative in the radicals’ hands. In this way, the radicalization of the whole discourse is forming under the influence of the marginal and extremist groups, which do not have serious community support in any other sociopolitical questions. Unprecedented occurrences were the threats to the CIS Jews in the context of Israel’s actions in Gaza – such occurrences had never been documented before.

In the post-Soviet territory, an anti-Israeli sociopolitical bloc is forming, though slowly and not linearly, to unite not only Muslim groups, but also the left-wring intelligentsia; and these are not only those who share the orthodox Soviet-Communist opinions (this is understandable because “anti-Zionism” was part of the ideological baggage for all the KPSU succeeding parties), but also those of the “new generation” representatives of liberal human rights organizations. It is especially clear in Ukraine. As for Russia, the situation is aggravated by the position of the government, which despite its experience in struggling against Islam terrorism, for domestic affair reasons, is not going to line up with Israel’s actions. It is interesting to note that the government’s position is particularly conditioned with pro-Israeli position of liberal-democratic human-right bloc of Russian intelligentsia, which stays in opposition to Putin and Medvedev.

We did not include the reaction of the post-Soviet countries’ foreign affair ministries into this review. In spite of the fact that in our opinion, the official position of some countries was biased and inequitable to Israel (in particular, we want to point out some unbalance in the statements made by the Ukrainian and especially the Azerbaijani foreign affairs ministers), we still cannot call even the tartest ones of them “anti-Israeli”, as they were just “unbalanced.” But this review is not about the reaction (negative, but in the acceptable limits of legitimate discussion) to Operation Cast Lead and the Gaza situation in general, but about the reaction that we can describe as “anti-Israeli.”

At the very beginning of the Operation, some public anti-Israeli actions took place in Russia, organized mostly by representatives of Muslim organizations, among them some belonging to the Muslim establishment.

On January 1, there was an unsanctioned rally near the Israeli Embassy in the Russian Federation, attended by around 50 people. The assembly called out to the Israeli government to stop hostilities in the Gaza Strip^¹. On January 2, representatives of the Palestinian Association tried to hold a picket. There were 50 people in the picket, 37 of them got detained and brought to the Department of Internal Affairs in Yakimanka and Zamoskvorechie^². Among those detained was member of the Russian Federation Public Chamber, First TV Channel host, Maxim Shevchenko; State Duma deputy of the 4^th convocation, head of the Russia – Islamic World Analytical Center, Shamil Sultanov; chairman of the Sobranie Association, Mukhamed Salyakhetdinov^³.

On January 16, a mass protest took place in the territory of the central mosque in Makhachkala, Dagestan. The participants in the protest spoke against Israel’s actions and united, according to different estimations, from 1,000 to 15,000 people. Even before the protest had started, the mosque imam and representative of the Makhachkala Imam Board, Magomed-Rasul Saaduev, said to his parishioners, “The planet has Israel as an enemy of the Lord and mankind, because only such an enemy can shoot at the unarmed and defenseless children, women and old people.” Saaduev called all the Dagestani people to gather rallies and to “support our Palestinian brothers financially.”

Vice-chairman of the Dagestani Muslim Spiritual Administration, Magomedvakil Sultanmagomedov, noted that Israel's actions are unprecedented: “Thousands of civilians have been shot, even more wounded, Israel attacks civilian objects; mosques and institutions of learning get destroyed. Yesterday the TV showed unarmed frightened children being walked away by Israeli soldiers, blindfolded. The main terrorist is Israel herself. Nobody can escape her. The Palestinians are left with no help: neither the UN nor other countries [are willing to lend them a hand], but they have another patron and he will destroy the present-day Israel, because he is God”.

Student of the International Department of the North-Caucasian Theology and Religious Studies Institute, Magomed Abakarov, said that the Dagestanis treat the Jews fine, while “Israeli Jews kill our brothers”. “Jews in the whole world support Israel; they are responsible for the Palestinian genocide as well. They should not try the patience of the Dagestani people or else they might get what they deserve,” he warned. Head of the Juridical Department of the Dagestani State University, Magomed Magomedov, noted, “The courageous Palestinian people are going to win.” Slogans seen during the rally included such mottos as “Israel is Evil!”, “Zionists, get out from Palestine!”, “Say 'No' to Israel, Say 'Yes' to Palestine!”^⁴ The rally’s resolution read that the war in Gaza had been initiated by Israel, and Israel was called “the base of forceful entrenchment of earthliness, immorality and permissiveness in the Middle-Eastern countries.” The resolution consisted of a lot of clichés, such as “The Israelis kill women, children and old people,” and the obtrusive comparison with Nazism, in which the Nazis take second place to Israel. The Israeli actions were compared to the Nazi actions while Gaza was compared to Leningrad during its blockade^⁵.

The rally asked the United Nations Security Council “to apply the strictest sanctions possible against the Jewish state, and to put the matter of Israel State leaders’ aggression and crimes against the Palestinian people before the international tribunal”^⁶.

On January 17, a picket took place in St. Petersburg, uniting several hundred people (different numbers are quoted: from 250 to 1,000 people). After the picket was over, the Head of the St. Petersburg’s regional public organization Islam Culture Center, Mohamed Khenni, repeated the standard accusations against Israel, lashing against her alleged genocide of the Palestinians^⁷ and comparing Israel’s actions to the Holocaust^⁸.

On January 18, an organized picket took place in Kazan’, uniting about 200-350 people. The assembly posted photos of the Palestinian war victims and mottos such as “Say ‘No’ to War!”; “Say 'No' to Zionism!”; “Zionism = Fascism”; “Israel repeats Hitler’s story”; “Say ‘No’ to terror in Palestine!”. Many people brought Palestinian flags with them^⁹.

On January 18, the Russian University of Friendship of Nations held an evening meeting under the slogan of “Gaza, We Stand with You!” organized by Islamic organizations. At the meeting, Maxim Shevchenko said: “Today, Israel embodies the Evil Forces. The land of Palestine is holy, and everything that happens there is the reflection of what happens on our planet. The Palestinians are the embodiment of spirituality that holds the fort against the animal scowl of materialism, which in its turn has clawed its way into the holy land.” One of the Russian Islam ideologists, Head of the Russian Islam Committee, Geidar Jemal, said, «Zionist Israel has revealed her inhuman nature and with these actions has discredited the myth of the year 1945 about being repressed and hurt by the Holocaust”^¹⁰.

In St. Petersburg, Kazan’ and Makhachkala, local Islam activists tried to organize a boycott of Israel-made products (though among the “Israel-made” products were listed products of some trademarks that are merely operating in Israel such as Colgate, Palmolive, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, McDonalds, Nescafe, IBM, L’Оreal, Danone, and Nokia). A total of 15,000 flyers were distributed, in which people were encouraged to join the boycott (5,000 flyers in Kazan’ and 10,000 flyers in Makhachkala). However, such calls have a rather low effect in Russia, and there are no signs of an expectation that it might change this time^¹¹.

On February 3, a photo exhibition was organized by the Islamic Cultural-Educational Center Jerusalem in the Central House of Journalists. The exhibition was called "Where the Cast Lead Goes” and the basic materials for the exhibition were photos from the Palestinian Information Center. Journalist S. Markus opened the exposition with accusations that the Israelis “delegate to themselves the Lord’s powers”. Prior to him, Jemal’ drew the attention of the assembled to the support Israel gave the Georgian Army, making it sound like an “approach of the Israeli war machine to the Russian Federation borders”. Palestinian Ambassador to Russia, Afif Safia, said, “The Gaza war became Israel’s loss and Palestine’s tragedy”^¹².

Some Muslim leaders have made some anti-Israeli statements. On December 31, Head of the Religious Board of Muslims in the Asian Region of Russia, Co-Chairman of the Russian Mufti Board, Nafigulla Ashirov, compared Gaza events to the “genocide that the Fascist Germany exercised in the occupied territories of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War,” comparing the Gaza blockade with events in Leningrad^¹³. On January 8, member of the Russian Mufti Board, Head of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Karelia Republic, Visam Ali Bardvil, urged President of the Russian Federation, Dmitryi Medvedev, to “do his best to ease the lot of innocent Palestinians and to stop Israel’s aggression.”^¹⁴

On January 14, in an interview to the Nakanune.ru website, G. Jemal said that the Cast Lead Operation is “genocide in itself”, an attempt to “take from them [Palestinian people] the democratically elected HAMAS”. He also talked about the “ominous racist nature of the Israeli state” and gloatingly pointed, “Israel had exposed a huge number of the Jews in the world. Today, because of the Gaza events, Judophobia is on a rise in comparison to which the 30-ies of the 20^th century look like a child’s play… The international public will consolidate on the basis of the Zionist reprobation and the reprobation of the politically correct myth that in memory of the Holocaust, people should support the Jews at any cost.” In order to set the interview readers against Israel in an as hostile manner as possible, G. Jemal’ underlined that Operation Cast Lead was supposedly created by General G. Girsh who had prior trained the Georgian Army. He claimed it was the General who had planned the South-Ossetia attack in the August of 2008 and who had put the foundation for the “Tbilisi-Tel-Aviv axis of evil” authorized by the USA and “given orders to take care of the dirty work.”^¹⁵

On January 23, Vice-Imam of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Volga Region, Rasim Kusyakhmetov, in his letter to Vladimir Stepanov, Saratov region attorney, asked for initiation of criminal proceedings against the distributors of the article “10 Reasons Why I support Israel in the Arabic-Israeli Conflict” on the basis of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article appeared on January 13 at the City News Agency website^{^}. Zufar Khakimov, Head of the Saratov region Tatar-Bashkir Diaspora Executive Committee, described this text as “anti-Islamic”. Rustam Mansurov, Head of the Saratov region public organization, the Sogdiana Uzbek Cultural Center, described the article “10 Reasons Why I support Israel in the Arabic-Israeli Conflict” as a “direct assault on the Muslim religion”^¹⁶. In fact, it is all about an attempt “to shut their opponents’ mouths” by a pseudo human right rhetoric (the text itself is not about the Muslims, but about the HAMAS practices).

On February 4, in his interview to the VIP-Version internet project, G. Jemal’ said, “Israel has ruined the once methodically created Zionistic myth about the Jewish people who had been haunted and thus should be entitled to everything. An anti-Semitic wave floods the world. The Jews have been exposed; the political situation in Israel has become worse. This means that the authorities will turn away from their Zionist partner. They will distance themselves from it and make the Jews guilty for everyone's economic crisis. Political correctness, which made us take for granted everything that Israel had been doing to the Palestinians, has finally been breached. And we can speak openly about the need for a new international trial – a new Nuremberg process – the trial against the war criminals of Israel”^¹⁷.

Nevertheless, it was not the entire Islamic establishment that took part in these actions. For example, the Muslim Spiritual Boards of St. Petersburg and Tatarstan decided not to take any part in the anti-Israeli rallies. Talgat Tagudin, Head of the Central Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Russia, even wrote a letter, in which he described HAMAS as “terrorists,” saying that “the State of Israel fights against terror.”^¹⁸

Pickets against Israel however were set up not just by Islamists but also by representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The biggest picket was held January 15 near the Israeli Embassy in Moscow. Russian Federation. But in spite of the involvement of the Palestinian Diaspora (represented by 100 people), the communists were able to gather not more than 200 people. The assembly chanted: “Israel is terrorist!”, “Israel is fascist!”, “Fascism won’t win!”, “Death to Israel!”, “Free Palestine!”, “Gaza, stand with you!”, “People are dying, children are dying! Gaza, we’re here for you!”, “Israel is fascist and terrorist! Israel murders children!”, holding such slogans as “Say “No” to Zionists’ slaughter of Gaza!”, “Capitalism is the reason for all the wars!”, “Stop the vandals in the Holy Land!”, “Save Palestinian children!”, “Olmert, Livny, and Barak are war criminals!”

In his interview to the KPRF.TV, Alexei Kornienko, member of the Communist Party fraction of State Duma, called the Gaza situation “Holocaust in Palestine.”^¹⁹

When the rally was over, its initiator was summoned to the police department due to the fact that his permit was for gathering no more than 70 people, while the crowd turned out to be 2.5 times more. A protocol was signed on the infringement of the rules for mass events and the initiator was made to pay a fine^²⁰.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation held a picket downtown Murmansk on January 17. The assembly blamed Israel for genocide and demanded that the Russian Federation “intrude and influence Israel.”^²¹ That was the last of the Communist Party actions to this effect in Russia.

The minimal attendance of the events organized by the Islamists and communists can be explained by the fact that Operation Cast Lead took place during the period of long holidays starting right after the Catholic Christmas (December 25) and lasting up to the New Year celebration according to the old Russian calendar (January 13). These long celebrations and official holidays were the reason why many activists were on vacation. Mobilization of a greater number of people was complicated because the TV, being the main source of information, gave no direct push towards discussing Israel’s “fault.”

Interestingly enough, most nationalist leaders preferred to keep silence about the Gaza events. K. Krylov, one of the ideologists of radical nationalism (and anti-Semitism), described their common position on December 31, putting the following an entry headlined, “Israeli Apologetics from Anti-Semitic Point of View” on his blog. In it, he states that for the nationalists, the failure of Israel (even more so – her disappearance) is very dangerous because the Jews will leave Israel and “get themselves not only the best (as it happens now) but every kind of profitable position both in the western world and in the well known parts of the eastern world,” while Russia will become a new target for the radical Islamists^²². Besides, how can nationalists wish Hamas to win, when they consider them enemies along with the “Jewish Freemasons”? It is impossible for ideological reasons – their supporters would not understand this (including those who attack the mosques and kill the immigrants, who are mostly Muslims). In fact, from the Russian nationalists’ viewpoint, the current position is “both are worse.” E. Valyaev of the Russkiy Obraz (the “Russian Image”) organization was most cynical saying on January 24, “Let them kill each other, their war is convenient for us Russians. By us, I mean Russia. This war helps reduce the number of strangers and those of false faith. So, this cynicism will be forgiven of the [Russian] Orthodox… It is good for us that they have a war raging there.”^²³ Russkiy Obraz organized actions in support of this worldview on January 23 in front of the Embassies of Israel and of the Palestinian Autonomy in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the Pskov department of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia, which used to statement its anti-Israel sentiments, held the picket entitled “Israel Has the Right to Defend Herself” on January 16. During the picket, they stated that world and the Russian mass media are too subjective in reporting all the battles between Israel and the Palestinian HAMAS movement. The assembled had posts saying, “Russia, be objective, support Israel!”, “Israel is Russia’s best friend!”, “Say “No” to terrorism!”, “IDF, set order in Gaza Strip”, “Israel has the right to defend her interests!”^²⁴.

The only famous non-Islamist and non-communist figure who supported HAMAS was Maxim Shevchenko. In his speech to the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station, he compared the development in Gaza to the blockade of Leningrad, HAMAS - to the anti-Nazi partisans, and demagogically called the Kassam-class missiles “pipe wrecks,” able to bring no damage at all, “except probably scratch the pavement.”^²⁵

Russian authorities were also reserved in their response to the conflict. The authority-oriented mass media (first of all, the federal channels), reported rather objectively on the conflict (maybe because during this time of the gas conflict, Ukraine took place of “enemy number one”). The fact that the Russian mass media was pretty objective in covering the Gaza conflict can be seen from rude words of Afif Safia, Palestinian Autonomy Ambassador to Russian Federation. He said that the “mass media are not very objective in how they cover the picture of Palestinian events,” and that the mass media took Israel's side in the conflict^²⁶. The only exception (not mentioning Islam Internet websites) was made by the pro-communist mass media and the Segodnya.ru Internet portal, which on December 30 copied HAMAS’ propaganda leaflets almost word for word, emphasizing that Gaza was attacked not by Israelis but by the “Jews”^²⁷.

Some signs showed this reticence was just a mask that covered the irritation. On January 14, Vitalyi Churkin, post-chairman of the Russian Federation to the UN, accused Israel at the New-York meeting that her actions (when the UN officers were killed by accident) “are totally inadequate and infringe on international laws”^²⁸. Meanwhile, Moscow City Hall refused the representatives of Jewish organizations to hold a rally in front of the Israeli Embassy in the Russian Federation in support of IDF on the pretext that the territory of the Embassy is too small for such a rally (which did not appear to be a problem when giving a permit to the Communist Party to hold a rally in the same place). As a result, the rally was organized at a different place which had no association with the Jews or the State of Israel^²⁹.

In fact, even though the Russian population is used to being shown black-and-white reality, the mass media gave no direct indication of who is “good” and who is “evil” in the Israel-HAMAS confrontation. The mess this created in the minds of the Russian population could be gleamed from the public opinion poll on Operation Cast Lead carried out by Yuryi Levada’s Analytical Centre on January 16-19. On the one hand, most of the respondents (45%) answered that the so-called “West” is mostly responsible for the war (26% blamed the USA, 12% blamed Israel, 5% blamed the UN and “the West” in general, and 2% blamed oil companies), 17% of the respondents blamed the Arabic side (10% decided that the “Islamic fundamentalists” are to blame, 5% blamed the “Palestinians”, and 1% claimed the responsibility to be that of Iran and Usama Bin Laden). 47% of the respondents didn’t approve of Israel’s Cast Lead Operation (17% of approved and 36% found it difficult to answer). On the other hand, 56% of the respondents said they shared the viewpoint that “the problem of terrorism can be solved only by killing the terrorists,” and only 24% of the respondents decided that the terrorists should be listened to and it would be better to find a way to satisfy everybody. In addition, 57% did not have sympathy for any side in the conflict (12% sympathize with the HAMAS supporters and 10% prefer Israel). However, 34% of the respondents said that Russia must stay away and not interfere with the conflict, 38% suggested that Russia should make every effort to help regulate the conflict peacefully, 4% suggested Russia should support HAMAS, and 6% said Russia should side with Israel^³⁰.

It is also possible that the calm in the mass media was caused by the holidays, because no printed publications were issued before January, 11–12^th. This version is supported by the fact that the Zavtra (Tomorrow) newspaper, issued right after the end of the holidays, published the article of Israel Shamir, a Jewish anti-Semite, who said in the very first lines of his article that “the Gaza attack ended up with the same failure for the Jews as their Lebanon campaign before.” Then the same “Jews” were accused of a standard set of war crimes, such as bombing of civil objects, including mosques, war crimes, civilian killings, etc. Several hundreds of HAMAS militants were killed during the first bombing and this bombing was described “as sneaky as the Beslan strike” (I. Shamil seems to have failed to catch the parody of this analogy – radical Islam supporters, similar to HAMAS supporters, were the ones who inflicted the Beslan strike). Again, there was a comparison of Gaza with the blockade of Leningrad, while the HAMAS regime was called “the only democratically elected government in the Arabic world.” Kassam-class missiles were called “self-made firecrackers” in order to emphasize their supposed harmlessness. Shamil claimed that the purpose of their firing was the removal of the Gaza blockade, but conveniently “forgot” to mention that this fire started before any blockade was put into place. What Shamil did not forget is to urge the Russian authorities to “pay attention and isolate all the potential collaborators who are ready to support the American-Israeli occupation of Russia.” He also added some slanderous accusations that the “Jews love themselves so much that are not able to see other people as equals.”^³¹ The same issue contained a statement by a “Coordination Council in Support of the Fight of Palestinian People”. This document stated that the Palestinians “have been struggling with the Zionist occupation for more than 60 years,” the Gaza Strip was called “the greatest concentration camp in human history,” and the myth of thousands of Palestinian children, women and old people was repeated once again. Israel’s actions were compared to those of fascism, while Gaza was presented as a “heroic land of struggle against fascism in the 21^st century.” The statement was signed by L. Ivashov, ex-leader of the Union of the People of Russia, M. Shevchenko, editor-in-chief of Zavtra, A. Prokhanov, N. Ashirov, V. Munirov, vice-chairman of the Military Islamist Union, journalist V. Shurygin, Geidar Jemal and Muhammed Salahetdinov, chairmen of small Islamist organizations, as well as two representatives of the Spravedlivaya Russia (Righteous Russia) movement, S. Sultanov, who used to be member of the Rodina (Homeland) Party, and O. Denisov^³².

However, if Zavtra has rather special readers, who are mostly nationalists, two other cases of anti-Israeli propaganda that became widely spread belong to the “mainstream” mass media. On February 23, the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, published an article by famous journalist Daria Aslamova “Can holocaust Victims Initiate Genocide? (Sic! – “holocaust” was written with a small “h”). The article was full of clichés: “the three-day long slaughter of Palestine,” “Gaza is the greatest jail in the world,” “the surreal concentration camp for Palestinians was ironically created by the descendants of those Jews whose grandfathers died in concentration camps,” “a Kassam-class missile is a flying can: if it lands on your head, only then you are in trouble. And with all this self-made products Palestinians try to fight against half a million strong (!) Israeli Army, armed according to up-to-date standards,” Arabic Christians are supposedly treated as “second-class people.” The Jews (note that all the Jews, not just the State of Israeli(!)) are described in black tones only: they are “people who forget mercy, who value the spilling of only Israeli blood,” “a million-strong band of loud, boisterous and impertinent former Soviet people – a gathering of occupants,” people, who swim in basins of mineral water while “Palestinians have water once a week.” It also included the impertinent lies about the 40-year long Gaza blockade and the fact that Israel shoots people swimming in the sea. There were also traditional anti-Semitic accusations of the world plot, American policy control and the world dominance plan (the first stage of which is control of the Middle East). Meanwhile, Aslamova’s sources among the Israelis were either people of the ultra-left viewpoint, preferring to deny any guilt of HAMAS in initiating the conflict and (just like publicist Israel Shamir) suggesting to “eradicate the Jews component in themselves,” or people of the marginal type, such as “hyper-Zionist” Avrom Shmulevich. Talks with such people are needed to show the “animal scowl” of the Israel because the quotes of Shmulevich are conveniently presented as proofs of “what Jewish people are made of.”^³³

The article of Aslamova has drawn a wide response and was posted on many nationalist forums, websites, and blogs. The publishing of this material does not surprise us though because Komsomolskaya Pravda published xenophobic materials before, but it does cause us concern.

Another example of radical anti-Semitic propaganda in the “mainstream” mass media was the At Night Only talk show aired on the TVC channel. The show itself was aired on February 5 but active discussions on the subject started on the Internet after the shootings of January 27. The topic of the show was provocative: “Did Israel Have Any Right to Intrude into Gaza Strip?” The anti-Israel side was represented by Geidar Jemal and Shamil Sultanov; their opponents were Anton Nosik and Julia Latynina. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Jemal and Sultanov used their standard clichés about “Gaza as a concentration camp,” the “democratic HAMAS regime,” “harmless Kassams,” “Israeli killing children and women,” and comparisons of the HAMAS militants with partisans in the Second World War, neither Nosik, nor Latynina were able to withstand such rhetoric. As a result, most of the audience expressed support to Jemal and Sultanov.

Second place in anti-Israel statements belongs to Azerbaijan. The initiators of rallies and public speeches were Islamists, cooperating with the Embassy of Iran. On December 29, Iranian diplomats held a ceremony of solidarity with Palestinians in one of the Baku mosques. Representatives of the Azerbaijani Islamic Party and the Persian Colony were involved as well. The Iranian Embassy sent an official statement to the Azerbaijani mass media stating that “the death of a great number of civilians as a result of the Gaza bombing became another black page the Zionist regime added to its file.” “What happened in Palestine was a crime against the humanity. Israel is eradicating an entire nation… Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey must unite their efforts and stop this fascism,” Gadji Gadjiaga Nuriev, IAP ex-chairman, said that very day, December 29^³⁴.

On December 30 and 31 and then on January 1, 2 and 7, the Islamists tried to post pickets in front of the Israeli Embassy in Baku. All the pickets were disrupted by the police. About 50 people were detained for taking part in the picket. Half of them were fined and released; the other half was arrested for 10 days^³⁵.

However, the most successful demonstration was held in the suburb of Baku – the town of Nardaran, which is considered to be Islamist stronghold. The first demonstration there took place on January 5. About 100 people gathered together to chant anti-Israeli and anti-American mottos “Death to USA and Israel!”, “Death to American Zionism!”. They burned American and Israeli flags and dummies of Ehud Olmert and George Bush. The assembly threatened death to S. Rustamhanly, deputy of Milli Mejlis. Another demonstration, on January 17, followed a similar scenario^³⁶.

The newly founded Peoples’ Socialist Party of Azerbaijan used this war to remind the population of itself. Their statement claimed that the Israeli authorities bear all the responsibility for the mass murders and civilian deaths in Palestine and that the “war operation, initiated by Israel, hides imperialistic forces.”^³⁷

Azerbaijan was also noted for the roughest anti-Israeli statements from representatives of the elite of the post-Soviet republics. On December 29, 2008, Ali Gasanov, Chief of the Sociopolitical Department of the Presidential Administration said, "Azerbaijan condemns the war actions in the Gaza Strip."^³⁸ On January 5, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan manifested its support of “Palestinian efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region. Azerbaijan will support the formation of a Palestinian State”^³⁹. On January 7,a statement appeared by the Communist Party of Azerbaijan accusing Israel of terrorism^⁴⁰.

On January 8, the pseudo-oppositional Greens Party of Azerbaijan called Israeli actions “Palestinian genocide”^⁴¹. On January 12, Elmira Suleimanova, Human Rights Commissioner and Ombudswoman of Azerbaijan, talked about a mass breach of human rights by Israel in Gaza^⁴². On February 4, Lala Abbasova, Mejlis deputy, claimed that she had left the Azerbaijan-Israel friendship group because she believed “the innocent children, women and old people died in Palestine because of the war policy of Israel”^⁴³. Such clams were made not exactly because of the “Muslim solidarity” but (judging from some interviews) because of the dissatisfaction of the Azerbaijani authorities with “not quite active” Israeli and Jewish Diaspora support of the Azerbaijani claims on the “Karabach” issue^⁴⁴.

Several public anti-Israeli actions took place in Central Asia. In Tajikistan, the main anti-Israeli generator was the opposing Party of Islamic Revival. On January 5, they published a statement, in which they called the military operation of Israel “an animal crime and an inhumane act”. The party demanded that Israel should hold fire and invite the UN together with other international and regional organizations "to look into the crimes of the Israeli regime and take those responsible for this attack to court," so that they could control the situation. The party supporters also urged the Tajik authorities to "judge" Israel’s actions and pay respect to the Palestinians^⁴⁵. This very day the party leaders started fundraising in "support of the Palestinians."

On January 6, the Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Gaza population was in danger of а humanitarian catastrophe^⁴⁶. But the State Committee for National Security prohibited the demonstration they planned for January 23. Rumors were circulating that a highly ranked SCNS official said this about the prohibition, "Let them go to Gaza and to Israel, and hold their demonstrations there, but not here around us!"^⁴⁷.

On January 5, the unregistered Muslim Union of Kyrgyzstan, founded on November 2008, distributed a statement calling the “international community to intrude into the conflict over the Gaza Strip and hold up Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians”. The Union demanded “the withdrawal of the Israeli military and cessation of hostilities to the civilians”; otherwise the Union threatened to hold mass protest actions in support of the Palestinians”^⁴⁸.

These demands of the Union were not satisfied and the leaders had to start their large-scale action. On January 14, Nurlan Motuev (who spent 2006-2008 in jail on charges of criminal offences) and Tursunbai Bakir uulu (former human rights commissioner), both co-chairmen of the Union, were detained in downtown Bishkek where they tried to set Israeli and American flags on fire ^⁴⁹.

However, on January 15, Almazbek Moldobaev, judge of the Bishkek Pervomaisk district, did not find their actions of criminal nature and cleared them of the charge of holding an unsanctioned meeting. They both were only fined for disobedience to the police^⁵⁰.

On January14, Bakir uluu organized a photo exhibition in the State History Museum headlined “Victims of Israel in Gaza,” which supposedly showed "the Zionist atrocities against civilians in the Gaza Strip" and included many different anti-Israeli caricatures, reprinted from Islamic websites. This exhibition also functioned in Bishkek mosques for a few days.

Official Muslim spiritual leaders of Kyrgyzstan hurried to agree with the radicals and show their indignation with Israel’s actions. On January 9, azhi Zhumanov, 35-year-old main mufti of Kyrgyzstan, who took this office in 2002, held a press conference, where on behalf of the Muslim Spiritual Board of Kyrgyzstan he demanded that Israel “should stop the killings of civilians”^⁵¹.

On January 16, an anti-Israeli rally took place near the Sochnut Agency office in the former capital of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata. Several dozens of people came to hold slogans with mottos about "Israel’ aggression against civil Palestinians."^⁵²

On December 27, several Muslim organizations of Ukraine, members of the ar-Raid inter-regional association (or al’-Raid after its re-registration in 2007; the association was founded in 1997 by students of Arab countries in an attempt to meet their religious needs; today, it became one of the notorious “centers of attraction” including some communities of “native” Ukrainian Muslims, mostly of the salafit type, and those ethnic Slavs who accepted Islam), made an appeal calling Israel actions “Barbarian bombing”. They also mentioned hundreds of killed children, women and old people, the alleged genocide of the Palestinians and called for “moral and material support for half and a million population of the Gaza Strip”^⁵³.

On January 2, during his Friday sermon, Imad Abu Ar-rub, imam of the Kiev Islamic Cultural Center mosque of an-Nur, which also belongs to the ar-Raid association, talked of the Gaza events and blamed Israel and the “Zionists” for the “everyday killing of dozens of innocent children, women and old people”, claiming they had picked civil objects as targets on purpose^⁵⁴.

The Ukrainian Ministry of the Foreign Affairs stated at the beginning of the conflict that they doubted “the rightness of the proportion of the military forces in Israel”^⁵⁵, which invoked a protest from the local Jewish organizations^⁵⁶.

On January 8, the Mejlis of the biggest Muslim community of Ukraine – the community of the Crimea-Tatars – issued a statement, claiming, “This cruel bloodshed, leading Palestinians to a humanitarian catastrophe, must be stopped. The death of hundreds of innocents, the sufferings and torture of civilians in one of the most heavily populated territories in the Middle East should draw the attention of the whole international community. Different people of different nationalities and different believes have united to defend peace, standing together against violence. […] The presidium of the Mejlis of the Crimea-Tatars stands in support of the efforts of the international community and the UN in their attempt to stop the violence and killings in the Middle East, urging their opponents to stop this warfare and initiate negotiations”^⁵⁷.

On January 10, Arab communities and Ar-Raid, with the support of a few left-wing activists in Kiev and radically-oriented Tatar Muslim groups in Simferopol held anti-Israeli demonstrations. The Kiev demonstration was held in front of the UN Mission building and united several hundred people^⁵⁸.

Two approaches could be seen in the reaction of the Ukrainian Muslims: for the Mejlis, it was important to emphasize the existence of a legitimate Palestinian Autonomy and of HAMAS radicals and to show that their “opposition to Israel” caused death to people. However, Ar-Raid showed open solidarity with HAMAS and even considered them the legitimate authority not only in Gaza but in the whole Palestine.

The anti-Israeli rhetoric becomes an important part of the Ar-Raid activities. On January 15, Ar-Raid issued the following statement, “The latest events demonstrated that the authorities of Israel are planning to destroy the Palestinian people. That is why we believe we must appeal to the international community to make them stop the shedding of blood, call off the blockade of the Gaza Strip and admit that Israel’s actions constitute the genocide of Palestinians”^⁵⁹.

However, the most serious anti-Semitic incidents in response to Operation Cast Lead were found in threats rather than in public actions.

On January 24, leaflets were found near the entrance to the synagogue in Donetsk, starting with the words “You owe us! “Shalom”, our Jewish brother…” The text followed, “You are one of those who shoot, burn and kill Palestinian Muslims. […] We demand termination of the killings of civilians and punishment for those who are to blame for their death. And this is YOU. And YOU must answer, and YOUR children must answer, just as our children and old answered THERE”^⁶⁰.

According to unofficial information, in the last decade of January, an Iranian man was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine. The man made telephone calls with threats to set fire to the Israeli Embassy. The Embassy officials confirmed the fact of the threats but they knew nothing about the person who made them.

On January 5, the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Abkhazian Republic issued a statement to condemn Israel’s actions. This document demagogically stated that “the only guilt” of the Palestinians was that “they wanted to live in their own state, in their God-given land^⁶¹.

In summary: there were no organized mass anti-Israeli actions in the post-Soviet territory unlike those in Western Europe. This can be explained by the negative attitude of the authorities to any oppositional activities.

It should also be noted that most of the leaders of the CIS countries did not consider the Gaza conflict a matter of concern. Russia leaders put priority on their “gas conflict” with Ukraine, which captured their whole attention. Russian nationalists found both sides “worthy of each other.” Ukrainian nationalists also looked at the conflict in the Middle East through the prism of the Ukrainian-Russian relations: if HAMAS recognizes the independence of South Ossetia and the Russian authorities show (or at least the Ukrainian nationalists believed so) sympathy to them, then Israel was right. The only exception was Oleg Tyagnybok, leader of All Ukraine Union, notorious for his anti-Semitism, who wrote an article headlined “Bloody Christmas in the Middle East”^⁶² – and typically it provoked anger from almost every famous nationalist leader and publisher.

On the other hand, the attempt of Azerbaijan should not be missed to pressurize Israel and get a chance to use Israeli lobbyist resources in their interests.

In their anti-Israeli statements, participants in the protests and rallies appealed to the same propaganda clichés about Israel’s actions: mass murder of children, women and old people by the Israeli military, adjusted firing at mosques, schools and hospitals, and the accusation of Israel of her special genocide of the Palestinian people.

The only exception was Russia, where activists of anti-Israeli actions used images that are more familiar to the Russian people: the blockade of Leningrad and the Holocaust, projecting them into reality of the Gaza Strip and the war of Israel.

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Euro-asian jewish congress

Содержание

EURO-ASIAN JEWISH CONGRESS

CONTENTS

SPECIAL REPORT: ANTI-ISRAELI ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS IN POST-SOVIET SPACE

DURING THE CAST LEAD OPERATION