The former head of Nativ, Yaakov Kedmi, was placed on the European Union’s sanctions list on Sunday. Kedmi was accused of supporting President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on Russian television, and was called the EU “a Kremlin propagandist,” Kan 11 reported. According to the EU’s announcement, Kedmi said the government of Ukraine was Nazi, and his support for Russia’s policy “endangers [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity.”
Nativ (formerly Nativ – Liaison Office) is an agency in Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office whose mission was to reach out to the Jews in the Soviet Union, and, after the fall of the USSR, in Russia and the former republics, to encourage their attachment to Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. Until 1990, Nativ was considered a semi-secret agency, when it operated at great risk behind the Iron Curtain. Kedmi ran the agency from 1992 to 1999.
The EU announcement, dated Feb. 25, 2023:
There you have it: one more fine example of how the Europeans and Americans are defending democracy by suppressing free speech. According to an EU statement above, Kedmi supported claims that the Ukrainian government has Nazis in its rows, and this support for Russia’s policies “endangers [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity.”
Kedmi, who is no stranger to fighting political oppression. In 1967, he registered for an Aliyah permit at the Israeli embassy in Moscow. Israeli diplomats refused him, thinking he was a KGB agent. So, in 1968, Kedmi publicly renounced his Soviet citizenship, and the Washington Post published his emotional letter declaring his pride in his Jewish heritage and his right to live in Israel. In 1969, Kedmi was granted an exit visa to become the first oleh from the Soviet Union.
“This is a moral low point the European Union and its entire gang have reached if these morons think that sanctioning me would make Putin change Russia’s policies” Kedmi, 74, told Kan 11.
As to Ukrainian Nazis, Kedmi insisted: “I see Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi tattoos and Nazi symbols on their uniform, those who murdered the Jews are now national heroes, there are military units bearing Nazi names. The Ukrainian regime is a Nazi regime. This regime honors and glorifies the Nazi collaborators who murdered the Jewish people. It’s a fact that no one can deny.”
Yes, it is. This publication has pointed out many times Ukraine’s dark history of murdering Jews, before and during the Nazi occupation. See these reports:
- Israel Condemns Kiev Torchlight Celebration of Ukrainian Nazi Collaborator
- Ukraine Recalling Ambassador to Germany Who Praised Nazi Collaborator
- Ukraine Rebukes Israeli Ambassador Who Protested Naming Stadium After Nazi Collaborator
- Ukrainian President in Hot Water over Presenting Lodz Ghetto Jews as Nazis
But wait, there’s more: last November, Kyiv Post, “Ukraine’s Global Voice,” reported on a Russian State TV debate (Russian Propagandist Rebuked for Calling for Ukrainian Cities to be Wiped Out), in which Vladimir Solovyov, a known Putin lackey, was criticized for advocating for Kiev to be “destroyed” and Kharkov to be “wiped off the face of the earth.”
The Kyiv Post reported: “In a rare sign of disunity among the Kremlin’s more prominent mouthpieces, Vladimir Solovyov was called out by former Israeli politician and geopolitics lecturer Yaakov Kedmi, who described his comments as ‘criminal.’
“The pair confronted each other during a heated debate over Moscow’s strategy in the so-called ‘Special Military Operation,’ with Solovyov calling for the bombing of Ukrainian cities in order to prevent the frontline from receding into Russian territory.
“‘There were no wars in history where the bombing of a peaceful city and a civilian population led to some results on the battlefield. Would that deter them? When did it ever happen? It didn’t happen in any war,’ Kedmi said, adding ‘there are 1,001 ways to fight without touching civilians.’”
To clarify, that’s the guy the EU just sanctioned.
