Knesset speaker calls for honest judgment on history of relations between Jewish, Ukrainian peoples
An honest judgment on the history of relations between the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples should help improve these relations at the present time, Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein has said.
"These relations [between the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples] have been different in different periods of history, and I don't think that an attempt to rewrite history this or that way, or idealize it, or paint it black would be the right thing to do," he said at the forum, titled "Ukraine-Israel 2016: 25 Years of Diplomatic Relations: From Common Heritage to a Shared Vision," held in Kyiv on Thursday.
Jewish and Ukrainian people have lived side-by-side for centuries, their relationships have been different, and some historical personalities venerated by Ukrainians as heroes and fighters for independence may be seen differently by the Jewish people, Edelstein said.
The same concerns WWII and the Holocaust, when some Ukrainians rescued Jews at the risk of their own lives, while others, on the contrary, collaborated with the Nazis, he said.
"Such is history, and it cannot be dashed. The question is how to live with this. I believe the past 25 years have shown that an honest judgment on history helps develop excellent relations," he said.
