Tomás Ó Flatharta

The USA based Ukrainian Socialist Solidarity Campaign has published an open letter addressed to President Zelensky – see below :

August 22, 2022

Attn: Ukrainian Embassy

Ukrainian Socialist Solidarity Campaign has been organizing support for Ukraine and its right to defend itself against Russia’s imperialist invasion since the start of that invasion.

We’re shocked to learn that your government supported the recent Israeli “pre-emptive” attack on Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli news source Ynet News reports that Yevhen Korniichuk, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel, expressed support for Israel while it was attacking and killing at least 30 Palestinians including 4 children. No Israeli casualties have been reported – yet, according to news reports, Korniichuk wrote in a tweet on August 7th, “As a Ukrainian, while our country is under brutal attack from a close neighbor – I feel great sympathy towards the Israeli public. Terror and malicious attacks towards citizens have become daily matter for Israelis and Ukrainians.” He added. “We have to put an end to it. We pray for peace and hope the escalation ends soon.”

We do not see the tweet referencing Israel at the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel Twitter account: https://twitter.com/UKRinIsrael. Was the tweet made? Was it withdrawn? We also understand that others have sent inquiries about this tweet and received no reply, so we can only assume that support for Israel’s bombing campaign has not been withdrawn.

The facts about the recent violence in Palestine are that the Israelis arrested a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader on the West Bank. Then Israel closed down part of southern Israel. Then Israel launched bombing attacks on August 5. A five-year-old Palestinian girl was killed the first day. Four children were killed overall in the Israeli “operation”. One girl lost both legs and one arm! More than 360 people have been injured.

Yes, the Israeli government says they’re only targeting “terrorists”. This should be familiar to you, as Putin’s forces say they’re only targeting “Ukrainian Nazis,” mimicking the same language used by the USA and Israel. Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign stands for the complete independence of Ukraine from all forms of Great Power dominance, including freedom from the geopolitical dictates of US foriegn policy.

We are dismayed and angry that your government would talk about Palestinian “terrorism” when it was Israel that is killing Palestinians and smashing up Gaza, just as Russia is killing Ukrainians and smashing up parts of Ukraine.

The situation for the Palestinian people has much in common with the Ukrainian people. In both cases a right wing reactionary regime is stealing land and territory from the people. In Israel-occupied Palestine the Israeli regime is steadily encroaching on the land of the Palestinian people in the West Bank as well as in Israel itself. In Ukraine, imperialist Russia is trying to annex thousands of square miles of Ukrainian land.

Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign stands on the side of the oppressed and exploited in Ukraine and around the world.

We call on you to publicly retract or condemn your ambassador’s comment and to instruct him on the matter. 

We look forward to hearing from you.

In solidarity with Ukraine and in solidarity with Palestine,

Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign

http://linktr.ee/ukrainesocialistsolidaritycpgn

John Reimann, Co-Chair
Cheryl Zuur, Co-Chair