Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the second reading of a bill banning anti-Semitism in the country.
The legislation defines anti-Semitism as hatred of Jews, as expressed by calling for or justifying attacks on Jews, making false or hateful statements and denying the persecution and mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. Intentionally damaging buildings, monuments and religious institutions may also fall under the definition of anti-Semitism.
Under the new law, violators will face existing hate crime penalties created by previous laws. Victims will be able to claim compensation for material and moral damage as the result of anti-Semitic actions.
A total of 283 lawmakers endorsed the law in the final reading. The bill was introduced by a group of deputies led by Maxim Buzhansky from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 244-member Servant of the People faction.
Zelensky must sign the law for it to enter into force. The president’s parents were Jewish, and he has said he lost relatives in the Holocaust.
Vladimir Vyatrovich, the former head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and member of the 27-member opposition party European Solidarity, criticized the bill. In his opinion, the Ukrainian parliament is being used “to update Russian fakes about the alleged threat of anti-Semitism in Ukraine.”
Vyatrovich believes the new legislation contradicts the Constitution, which prohibits privileges based on ethnic origin.
Ukraine experienced the horror of the Holocaust firsthand. On Sept. 29-30, Ukraine will mark the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the biggest single mass murders of Jews during this period.
Nazis and local collaborators massacred 33,771 Jews at Babyn Yar ravine in Kyiv. During the ensuing two years, over 100,000 more people were killed there, including Jews, Ukrainian nationalists, Soviet prisoners of war and Roma people.
Read more: Walter Russell Mead: Amid the pandemic, anti-Semitism flares up
