Jewish leaders protest planned building on Ukraine mass graves
Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine and head of the World Jewish Congress condemn proposed construction at site where Holocaust victims rest
Planned construction in Ukraine atop mass graves of Holocaust victims prompted strong-worded protest by Jewish community leaders and Israel.
The World Jewish Congress expressed its “outrage” on Tuesday in a statement about the prospect of construction on the mass graves of thousands of Jews murdered there by the Nazis.
And Joel Lion, Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, wrote a letter on June 13 to Oleksandr Shamota, the acting mayor of the town 200 miles east of Kiev, demanding the plans be abandoned.
Lion noted that Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum and research institution, determined the location of the mass graves based on multiple testimonies.
That construction is envisioned on the site of these mass graves “is deeply troubling,” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder stated.
“It is critical in 2019, with rising nationalism and increasing attempts by some to whitewash history, that we work together to ensure that sites such as this one are preserved so they may serve as a reminder to the world of what can happen when hatred is permitted to thrive unchecked,” he added.
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