|
WASHINGTON –U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (IL-10) and Ron Klein (FL-22) today introduced bipartisan legislation to curb the rise of anti-Semitic violence in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
“When the Soviet Union fell, we thought the fight for persecuted minorities ended,” said Kirk, past chair of the Congressional Taskforce on Anti-Semitism and who played an integral role in the Soviet Jewry movement as an aide to former U.S. Rep. John Porter of Illinois. “Unfortunately, widespread discrimination persists against religious and ethnic minorities. The international community needs a wake up call that Jews and other minorities are under attack in the Former Soviet Union.”
“This is a community that desperately needs our help. Congress must be there to lend a hand,” said Klein, Chair of the Congressional Taskforce Against Anti-Semitism. “This legislation will give a much-needed boost to institutions that seek to eliminate the toxic disease of hate, and I am proud to introduce a plan of action for the Former Soviet Union to ensure that Jews and other minorities are safe to live their lives.”
The Former Soviet Union Minority Relief Act of 2008 would strengthen rule of law and democracy initiatives in Ukraine, undermine hate speech in Russia and Belarus through international broadcasting and allow for emergency evacuations from Belarus or Russia if the need emerges.
“There should be no mistaking the threat to democracy and national security posed by today’s gathering global storm of anti-Semitic and xenophobic hate crimes and propaganda, aided and abetted by patently corrupt and dysfunctional criminal justice systems,” Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union National Director Micah Naftalin said in testimony before the Helsinki Commission last November. “The very existence of the impunity that perpetrators of hate crimes and discrimination enjoy, as we document here, is a monstrous violation of citizens’ human rights, as guaranteed by international treaties.”
“UCSJ applauds Reps. Kirk and Klein for yet another of their contributions to the cause of democracy, rule of law and the plight of Jews and all those ethnic and religious minorities that suffer from nationalistic and neo-Nazi hate crimes across the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus,” Naftalin said. “This initiative is especially forward looking because it expertly blends the causes of human rights and religious freedom with important elements of foreign policy and national security.”
Marillyn Tallman, director of the Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry, hailed the legislation as a “watershed moment” in the fight to stop anti-Semitism in the Former Soviet Union.
“We applaud Reps. Kirk and Klein for their effort to raise awareness of the plight of Jews in the Former Soviet Union,” Tallman said. “The public needs to know there are continuing crises that require constant attention of the international community.”
The following are excerpts from the U.S. State Department’s 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Russia: “Authorities rarely prosecuted or sentenced those arrested for attacks and vandalism against religious minorities, and they often failed to bring hate-crime charges even when religious bigotry was clearly involved…A number of small, radical-nationalist newspapers that print anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and xenophobic articles, many of which appeared to violate the law against extremism, were readily available throughout the country…Members of the State Duma and other prominent figures expressed anti-Semitic sentiments in a January 2005 letter, urging the prosecutor general to investigate Jewish organizations and initiate proceedings to ban them, charging that a Russian translation of ancient Jewish law, the Kitzur Shulchan Arukh, incited hatred against non-Jews.”
Ukraine: “There were several instances in which synagogues, cemeteries, and Holocaust memorials were severely vandalized, particularly in Odesa and Kirovohrad…According to media reports, from January to mid-May 2007 the Interior Ministry registered 873 instances of desecration of burial sites around the country. There were also several instances in which churches and cemeteries were vandalized, particularly in Odesa Oblast and Crimea.”
Belarus: “Respect for religious freedom worsened during the period covered by this report…The Government restricted religious freedom both actively and indirectly. The Government enforced laws that limit freedom of worship, speech, and assembly. The Government was sometimes responsible for and regularly failed to condemn acts of religious insensitivity or intolerance… The number of individual anti-Semitic incidents increased during the reporting period. Anti-Semitism is tolerated by the state. Anti-Semitic acts were only sporadically investigated, and the Government allowed state enterprises to freely print and distribute anti-Semitic material.”
|
