A swastika and neo-Nazi symbols was spray-painted last week on a monument in Mykolaiv, near Odessa, to the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

In Kiev, anti-Semitic flyers on Monday were placed on a synagogue and other Jewish heritage sites, including a monument to the Jewish author Sholom Aleichem and the former home of the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

According to Jewish News, a news website about Ukraine, the posters contained profanities and calls for violence against Jews, who were referred to as “trash.” The posters were signed by Svodoba, the name of a nationalist movement with prominent members who have been accused of anti-Semitism. Svoboda spokesman Ruslan Koshulinsky denied the party was behind the posters.

In Lviv, in western Ukraine, soccer fans last week handed out leaflets ahead of a match between their team, the Carpathians, and a team from Odessa, Chernomorets, whose players are often referred to as “Jews.” The posters were titled “Death to the Jews” and featured a picture of the main entrance to the Auschwitz death camp, according to the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism.

In Poland, “Murder the Jews” was spray-painted on the walls of a newly dedicated Jewish cemetery in Myslenice near Krakow, along with a swastika and the symbol of the elite Nazi SS unit, the news website miasto-info.pl reported.

On March 16, anti-Semitic slogans were chanted at an anti-communist demonstration in Krakow, including “Down with Judaism” and “hit them once with a sickle and twice with the hammer.”

In Hungary, stickers reading “Jews, the university is ours, not yours” were placed on the doors of two University of Budapest lecturers, Gyorgy Peter and Gruberne Welker Agnes. Earlier this month, a young woman wearing a T-shirt with the logo “Auschwitz Holiday Camp” was filmed attending a nationalist demonstration in Budapest.

October 30, 2012

Dear Mr. President:

The Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ), an American independent grassroots human rights NGO founded in 1970, strongly protests the continuing persecution of journalists and other activists in Belarus. This policy shows that Belarus authorities openly ignore international treaties, especially the Helsinki Final Act, the European Charter on Human Rights and Articles (including # 19) of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

We firmly object to charges against journalist Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent of Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish daily newspaper, and a prominent Polish-Belarusian minority activist. Now he cannot leave Grodno and must register with the police three times a month. He is officially charged with “libeling the President” under Article 367(2) of the Belarus Criminal Code, for 12 written articles that were published in Belarusian independent media. He has written about prisoners of conscience and criticized the authorities’ response to a wave of “silent protests” in Belarus in the summer of 2011. He also protested against the execution of two people in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Belarus. He wrote that the process violated the laws and that their guilt was not proven.

Charges against Mr. Poczobut have not been dropped, and he still faces a prison sentence in Belarus of more than seven years. Mr. Poczobut believes that his arrest in the summer of 2011 is an attempt to intimidate him and prevent him from carrying out his journalistic activity. Mr. Poczobut also received a 3- year suspended prison sentence on July 5, 2011 on the same charges for other newspaper articles.

The UCSJ asks you personally to stop the violence against and persecution of journalists and human rights activists in your country, and that you fulfill all of your official obligations regarding these issues. Immediately retracting all charges against Andrzej Poczobut, Ales Belyatsky and the other political prisoners can be the first step in this direction. We know that the Council of Europe’s policy toward Belarus is dictated by a sincere attitude toward its people and by a desire to support a legal state where the Rule of Law is a priority.

Sincerely,

Larry Lerner
UCSJ President

Poczobut has published articles in Belarus that criticize the process and decisions made in criminal cases, the government’s official response to the June- August 2011 “silent protests” and the treatment of Belarusian prisoners of conscience. He is clearly being targeted for his work, and is not being allowed his right to freedom of expression.

 Amnesty International is asking that concerned people:

“…write immediately in Belarusian, Russian or your own language:

• Calling on the authorities to terminate criminal persecution and drop the charges against Andrzej Poczobut immediately;
•  Urging them to guarantee the right to freedom of expression in line with their international human rights obligations, including Article 19 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.