Facebook Bans Ukranian Jewish Activist After He Exposed Anti-Semitic Graffiti

Tzippe Barrow
08-22-2018

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Facebook banned Ukrainian Jewish Committee Director Eduard Dolinksy for posting a photo of anti-Semitic graffiti scribbled on a wall in Odessa, the Jerusalem Post reported.

"I had posted the photo, which says in Ukrainian, 'Kill the Yid', about a month ago," Post correspondent Seth J. Frantzman quotes Dolinsky, who uses his Facebook page to let his followers know about hate speech and related anti-Semitic activities in Ukraine.


Anti-Semitic graffiti that says, 'Kill the Yid', convinced Facebook to ban Eduard Dolinsky for 30 Days

For the next 30 days, he says, community leaders and security personnel who count on the posts will have to look elsewhere.

Dolinksy tweeted the message that pops up when he tries to log in, along with the photo that offended Facebook.

"You recently posted something that violates Facebook policies, so you're temporarily blocked from using this feature," the message reads. "The block will be active for 29 days and 17 hours. To keep from getting blocked again, please make sure you've read and understand Facebook's Community Standards."

It's not the first time the social media giant has blocked him, he said, but it is the longest.

"They are banning the one who is trying to fight anti-Semitism," Dolinsky tweeted. "They are banning me for the very thing I do."

While police are reportedly opening criminal files against anti-Semitic activists in Odessa and elsewhere, Dolinksy says the goal is to cut him off for exposing Ukraine's support of nationalists who denied the Holocaust during World War II.

Last summer, Dolinsky reported on a Facebook post by the regional head of Ukraine's ultra-nationalist Svoboda party, which said it's too bad Hitler didn't wipe out all the Jews, the World Jewish Congress reported.

According to WJC, vandalism against Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials have increased in Ukraine since 2014, but violent attacks against Jews are "rare."

The report cites a Holocaust memorial in a western Ukrainian city desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti earlier that summer.

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird's eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe's parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar's pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.
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