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The “Holocaust by Bullets” in UkraineThe Holocaust in Ukraine represents the first phase of the Holocaust in which an estimated 1.5 million Jews were shot to death at close range in ravines, open fields, and forests. |
In addition to large-scale massacres such as those at Kamianets-Podilsky and Babi Yar, there were hundreds of smaller mass shootings in towns and villages throughout Ukraine, with the number of victims ranging from 100 to 3,000 in each location. After the war, the Jewish Preservation Committee of Ukraine identified 495 such sites, but a more recent estimate by the Catholic-Jewish Organization, Yahad-In Unum, puts the total number of sites at 916.
“There were people of every age—children, old people. They had been told to gather because they were going to be taken to work somewhere and that they should take some food and their children because there would be nurseries in which they would be looked after…The Jews had a sort of armband. Then they were told to undress and they were thrown into the pits. At the end of the day I went to look; the earth was moving [since many had not died right away].”
Ukraine Snubs Israel With Exclusion From Solidarity Conference Amid Efforts to Bolster Relations
Israel's exclusion from a post-war reconstruction conference in France is the latest in the fraught relationship between Jerusalem and Kyiv, as Zelenskyy aide admits Ukrainian votes against Israel at the UN were a ‘mistake’
Amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, an international solidarity conference for the country held in Paris on Tuesday was missing a notable country: Israel.
Hosted by French authorities, two other such conferences were previously held over the course of this year to discuss funding for post-war reconstruction of Ukraine and its infrastructure. The European Union states, the U.S., various international organizations and even three Middle Eastern countries attended the conference, according to a report from Al-Monitor.
The report also states that Israel was simply not invited. While the invites were decided between French and Ukrainian officials, Israeli diplomatic officials believe that their exclusion from the conference was driven mostly by Kyiv.
On Wednesday senior Ukrainian officials, including Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, met with a high-level Israeli delegation in Warsaw to discuss Jerusalem’s role in the reconstruction of their country at a Ukrainian-Israeli tech conference. News of the meeting was first reported by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
In a different report covering the conference, Kan reported that a personal aide of Zelenskyy’s speaking at the conference voiced his strong disagreement with the Ukrainian foreign ministry’s actions against Israel at the UN. Oleksiy Arestovych had said that “Ukraine’s votes against Israel at the UN are a mistake, and need to be corrected.”
The apparent snub of Israel – which the Al-Monitor report says was decided between Paris and Kyiv – follows a string of tense back-and-forths between Israel and Ukraine, including amongst other aid requests public pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated calls on Jerusalem to supply his forces with weapons, especially missile defense systems. Israel has consistently declined such requests, citing its concern that alienating Moscow could endanger Israeli military action in Syria.
Ukraine also supported a United Nations resolution to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on the legal status of Israel’s occupation and settlement expansion of Palestinian territory, to which Jerusalem summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel. In an apparent retaliatory move, Israel abstained from backing a UN resolution obliging Russia to provide reparations to Ukraine over its invasion of the country.
Israel has been helping Ukraine since Russia invaded in late February, even though it hasn’t provided the military weapons that Kyiv has so far requested. Last month, and under pressure from the U.S. administration, Israel agreed to finance “strategic materials” worth millions of U.S. dollars to contribute to the Ukrainian war effort. Israel announced that it would supply Kyiv with 20 generators, Kan reported. It has also provided a field hospital, body armor for first responders and planeloads of humanitarian supplies.
Speaking with journalists in Tel Aviv several days after the invasion earlier this year, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel put it bluntly when he declared that you can’t imagine how difficult it is for me to be ambassador to Israel if my president is a Jew – because he has much higher expectations of Israel than Israel can deliver.”