Global Neo-Nazism Is Increasing. Why Is The State Department Anti-Semitism Envoy Position Still Vacant?
▻https://forward.com/scribe/407102/global-neo-nazism-is-increasing-why-is-the-state-department-anti-semitism-e
The absence of a Special Envoy makes the media’s role of spotlighting outbreaks of hatred and anti-Semitism even more vital. This is why I was deeply alarmed to see the New York Times downplay and whitewash a neo-Nazi gang in a recent article [▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/world/europe/ukraine-roma-attacks.html] about Ukraine.
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Over the past three years, the trajectory of far-right development in #Ukraine has gotten worse. The government has declared #Nazi collaborators guilty of slaughtering Jews to be freedom fighters; parades to these groups are a common sight in Ukraine. Often, they are accompanied by rank anti-Semitism: In January 2017, chants of “Jews out” were heard at a torchlight parade in Kiev. According to RFE, Nazi salutes were seen when 20,000 marched last October. This April, the Anti-Defamation League’s Director of European Affairs tweeted a video of Nazi salutes as hundreds of people marched in the memory of a Waffen SS unit.
[...] And while the country’s prime minister is Jewish, Deputy Interior Minister Vadym Troyan has a long history of involvement with #neo-Nazi gangs. In 2014, Jewish groups, including Ukrainian Jewish leaders, were appalled at the idea of Troyan becoming chief of police in Kiev; today, he is one of the most powerful men in the country. And according to the Washington Post, another extremely powerful figure, Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy, spent over a decade running the overtly neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine. Parubiy is no longer formally affiliated with neo-Nazi organizations, but his dark past is deeply troubling, especially in a nation where gangs such as C14 act with impunity (according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations).