Michal Bilewicz
Haaretz, Mar. 24, 2022
“The paradox of Putin’s rhetoric is that he accuses Ukraine of “Nazism” while simultaneously using antisemitic tropes to stigmatize Russians who oppose his war and support Ukraine.”
“Listen to what the Kremlin says. Just listen! Now the same words [Nazi terminology] are being used again, the Final Solution, but now it is directed at us!” declared Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his public address to the Knesset. In his appeal to Israeli society, the Ukrainian president made explicit comparisons between today’s Russia and Nazi Germany.
Although controversial to many Israelis, it is hard to deny that for many Eastern European Jews, recent Kremlin propaganda reminds them of the darkest episodes of our history. And Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has achieved that ignominy even without specifically mentioning “Jews,” “Zionists” or “cosmopolitans.”
On March 16, Putin went on television to discuss the invasion of Ukraine. His address however, did not focus on external enemies. Instead, he pointed to an alleged vast conspiracy in the homeland – a key threat to the “special military operation,” as the invasion is euphemistically labelled in state propaganda. The speech is remarkable for the motifs he used – tropes that were commonly used in antisemitic rhetoric in the Soviet era, and that legitimized antisemitic violence.
Michal Bilewicz is Associate Professor of social psychology and the director of the Center for Research on Prejudice at the University of Warsaw. Twitter: @Michal_Bilewicz
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