Anti-Semitic slogans trigger violence at Ukraine rally

Members of the ultra-nationalist movement Svoboda detained for incitement

12 April 2013, 3:41 pm 2 Edit

JTA – Several people were injured after a riot broke out at a political rally in Ukraine when protesters displayed anti-Semitic slogans.

The April 6 rally in Cherkasy, a city situated 100 miles southeast of Kiev, turned violent after six men took off their jackets to reveal T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “Beat the kikes” and “Svoboda,” the name of a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist movement and the word for “freedom” in Ukrainian.

Police arrested one of the men, who were also confronted by people attending the rally, a gathering of opposition parties.

Police questioned 36 people suspected of inciting ethnic hatred in connection with incident, according to a report by the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism, a watchdog group.

One of the people injured at the rally, attended by a few hundred people, was Victor Smal, a lawyer and human rights activist.

“I told the men in the T-shirts they were promoting hatred,” Smal told the news site newsru.co.il. “They beat me to the ground and kicked me until I lost consciousness.”