Allegations of antisemitism

This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (November 2021)

In early and mid-2000s, the MAUP became embroiled in controversies because of evident antisemitism in their publications and conferences. The MAUP maintains that their activities can be classified only as anti-Zionism, but the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has referred to^[4] traditional antisemitic propaganda traits that have no connection to Zionism, such as religious antisemitism or solely blaming the Jews for the Russian October Revolution or the Holodomor of 1932–1933 (as a part of the Judeo-Bolshevist antisemitic conspiracy theory).

During October 6, 2004, hearing of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2004 and Designations of Countries of Particular Concern before the Committee on International Relations of the United States Congress, the MAUP was called "[t]he most troubling development" in Ukraine and it was asserted that it receives "significant funding from Arab and Muslim states".^[5]

On April 14–19, 2005 the MAUP weekly newspaper Personnel Plus published an open letter to President Yushchenko, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and Supreme Court of Ukraine Chief Justice Malyarenko calling for a parliamentary investigation into the "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine". The newspaper claimed that the letter was signed by more than a hundred scientific, civic, and political leaders.^[6]

On June 3, the MAUP sponsored a one-day conference entitled "Zionism As the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" attended by the former Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke of the United States.^[7] The Kyiv Post newspaper called the gathering "a disgusting orgy of racism and hatred".^[6] In August 2005, the MAUP awarded Duke with a Kandidat Nauk degree in History.^[8]

After the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's widespread misquote, "wipe Israel off the map" (when his real quote was "Israel is an unnatural creature, it will not survive")^[9] had evoked international condemnations, on November 4, 2005 the MAUP issued "a decisive protest against large-scale campaign, organized by Zionists, against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad […] where he quoted the words of the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini about future death of Israel and the USA".^[6]

In his November 22 statement, Georgy Shchokin, the MAUP's President who also heads the "International Personnel Academy" (IPA) and the Ukrainian Conservative Party (UCP), combined traditional Christian antisemitism with what has been defined as "new antisemitism", and failed to mention that the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975 (equating Zionism and racism) has been revoked in 1991 by the UNGA Resolution 4686:

"We'd like to remind that the Living God Jesus Christ said to Jews two thousand years ago: 'Your father is a devil!' … Zionism in 1975 was acknowledged by General Assembly of UN as the form of racism and race discrimination, that, in the opinion of the absolute majority of modern Europeans, makes the most threat to modern civilization. Israel is the artificially created state (classic totalitarian type). ... Their end is known, and only the God's true will rescue all of us. We are not afraid, as God always together with his children!"^[4]

On December 1, 2005, the MAUP held a conference "The Jewish-Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 – the Source of the Red Terrorism and the Starvation of Ukraine".^{[10][11]: 17}

In the March 2006 issue of the Personnel Plus, an article^[12] revived false blood libel accusations from the infamous 1911 Beilis Trial by mischaracterizing the verdict as the jury recognizing the case as ritual murder by persons unknown even though it found Beilis himself not guilty, when in fact the defense had entirely rested on demolishing the concept of Jewish ritual murder.^[13][14][15] A week earlier, MAUP leaders had visited the grave of Andrei Yuschinsky, the Christian boy who had been the victim in the case.^[16][17]

At a conference held at the MAUP Academy in Kyiv, the heads of the MAUP accused "Rothschild's Soldiers" of the genocide of the Ukrainian people.^[18]

On August 15, 2006, an article on the MAUP's website denounced the Bnai Brith as "the Jewish Gestapo".^[19]

Allegations of anti-Ukrainian sentiment

In 2019, a female student accused one of the professors Viktor Kolpakov of openly promoting pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian narratives during his lecture, including accusing Ukraine of starting the war in Donbass, claiming that Ukrainian language "doesn't exist anymore and won't be needed in Europe", promoting a union with Russia because "this is a strong state with good salaries, and we have a brainless nation" and that Sevastopol "finally has a normal life" after the annexation of Crimea. When the student openly opposed his claims, the professor ordered one of the students to take her out of the lecture hall.^[33][34] Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the higher educational institution was revealed only after the publication of moral abuse by one of the students on Facebook.^[35]