By israelnn.com
A Ukrainian city council member has kicked off an intense anti-Semitic campaign against Vladimir Vasilevitch Saldah, the Jewish mayor of Kherson.
Aleksandr Vayner, director of the Kherson Jewish Charitable-Community Center, and Vitaly Bronshtein, chairman of the Kherson branch of the Council of Regions of the Jewish Conference of Ukraine, both reported that Sergei Kirichenko, a former parliament member, spewed his anti-Semitic hate during several appearances on the local “Vik” radio show.
“Like in Gaza, where they kill women and children, they are destroying the Slavic people from within,” the Kherson city council member proclaimed.
“The Jews are occupiers, they have occupied us, they stole all our wealth and control us… they create terms that will enable genocide of the Slavic people.”
The anti-Semitic lawmaker has long been invested in trying to convince the local population that Jews are the enemy.
According to the FSU Monitor, Kirichenko has also allegedly posted on his website a “Catechism of a Jew in the USSR,” they said, a slightly updated version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the fictional anti-Semitic work produced by the Russian secret police during the time of the Czar. In the past, he has defined the work as a legitimate “historical document” that should be taken seriously.
The Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) speculated that Kirichenko’s latest rant was part of an effort to unseat Saldah and take his place.
Other comments he has made include:
“The Jews are the only ones getting rich while everybody else is suffering… this is the reason why we live so poorly in Kherson, why we are being ripped off every day, why we have no peace.”
“The Jews think that the Ukrainians are an inferior race that is meant to serve them, which is why they perpetrate crimes no other nation would dare to do.”
The RCE has called on the Ukrainian government to press charges against Kirichenko for incitement to racial hatred, and further, to denounce his activities. The organization has also demanded that the Ukrainian government pass laws banning similar talk.
In a statement to the media, the RCE warned, “It would be irresponsible to disregard those comments, especially as there are many who hear them, and among those, some who actually believe them. The Ukrainian government ought to pass a law against such bigotry, like most other European states. There is no place for such a warped mindset in the 21st Century.”
The rabbinical council also called on the French government last year to suspend cooperation with Ukraine until the government curbs the growing anti-Semitism in its society.
