As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its seventh day, the attacks on innocent civilians and civil infrastructure are becoming more frequent, indiscriminate, and horrifying to witness.
 
President Putin seeks to defend his outrageous actions under the bogus pretence of de-Nazifying Ukraine, yet yesterday we saw Russian missiles hit in the vicinity of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial site.
 
This site is a memorial to the 33,771 Jews that were murdered by the Nazis over a two-day period in September 1941. The memorial is of huge significance to Ukraine, and Jews throughout the world.
 
Please find the Yad Vashem Press Release on the attack on the Babi Yar Massacre here. 

This attack serves as a reminder of the constant need to maintain a “zero-tolerance approach” to anti-Semitism.
 
And although the EU is committed to resolutely confront antisemitism in all its forms, some recent examples show that it does not always live up to these standards.
 
An EU-commissioned study by the Georg-Eckert Institute, published last June, confirmed previous reports of antisemitism, glorification of terror and the erasure of Israel on maps, present in Palestinian schoolbooks. And yet, the Commission refuses to conditionally link funding to the Palestinian Authority with the demand for removal of this type of content.
 
Furthermore, the Commission has not resolutely rejected a recent Amnesty International report, which libels Israel, the region’s only true democracy, as an “apartheid state.”

I have raised these issues with colleagues in joint letters from the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) to President Michel of the European Council, President von der Leyen of the Commission, President Metsola  of the European Parliament, High Representative/Vice President Borrell, and Commissioner Várhelyi.

To read our letter click here.

For more information about TFI click here

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