To my deep satisfaction, I have learned that Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was forced to apologize publicly and through diplomatic channels for his sick jokes about the Saudi football team as “terrorists”. I believe Gyurcsany personally has nothing against Saudi Arabia, Arabs or Muslims. Even more, as a former ruling Communist Party functionary, he was taught and used to teach the fellow Hungarians to respect other nations as parts of an “international solidarity”. It is sad that from the very beginning of the scandal he tried to justify himself telling he had made his comments in the context of a TV show parody, and blamed all who protested for “political intolerance or even ill will.” It seems Gyurcsany was really surprised that his “jokes” could lead to such negative consequences for him and his country, as though political correctness does not apply to the statesmen and politicians if they speak about or against Arabs and Muslims.
As a television news and current affairs presenter, I have done my best to make the Ukrainian audience aware of Gyurcsany’s case. I believe the Ukrainian political establishment should learn from that story how to react if someone insults the nation’s dignity. It serves as a good case study to be examined by the students in the Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry Diplomatic Academy where I am lecturing on public relations in foreign policy. We in Ukraine have also often felt pain over the offensive remarks about Ukraine and the Ukrainians in the Russian and US media and by government officials (mainly Russian), blaming them for an “Ukrainophobia”.
It has also caused the urge to remember a couple of recent cases in Ukraine that I believe could serve as real examples of “political intolerance or even ill will”, which the Hungarian prime minister complained about.
When the Ukrainian Parliament had the fiery debates about the Ukraine’s armed forces presence in Iraq, parliamentarian Yuri Kluchkovsky said: “We are on the side of the Western civilization, being opposite to the fanatic Muslim authoritarian and dictatorial civilization”.
Being really puzzled, a day later I asked the guest of my show — the respected member of the Parliament, Refat Chubarov, one of the leaders of the Ukraine’s Muslim minority, belonging to the Crimean Tatars — if he demanded an apology from his colleague, ironically, from the same political party. “Well”, said Chubarov gently, “after that speech, Mr.Kluchkovski approached me and begged pardon telling me he had not wanted to offend anyone...” So, no one demanded to publicly retrieve MP’s statement, and the parliamentarian got away with it.
To my regret, this and similar incidents had set me thinking that in Ukraine you could easily make offensive or silly remarks about certain cultures and religions — exactly, Muslims, Arabs, Islam, calling them “fanatic”, “dictatorial”, “terrorist”, etc. You would never face any danger of being put in the list of “haters” in, for example, regular US State Department reports of religious freedom that are supposed to monitor any case of verbal religious or ethnic intolerance. Even more, you would be invited to be guest speaker at events staged by the Israeli Embassy. But there is also another side of the coin. If you show just a little sympathy to these cultures, religions, even peoples, you endanger yourself provoking a campaign of false accusations and defamation.
It took half and a year for another respected Ukrainian member of the Parliament, former Foreign Minister Hennadiy Udovenko, to win the libel suit against the publications owned by Israeli media mogul Vadim Rabinovich. Udovenko demanded the refutation of the many stories published by Rabinovich’s tabloids with such headlines: “Udovenko supports world terrorism!” “Udovenko praises terrorists!” etc. It happened after the parliamentarian participated, with fellow-parliamentarians and foreign, mainly Arab diplomats, at a roundtable discussion on the Palestinian intifada. Speaking to the audience about Ukraine’s long standing position in the UN supporting the rights of the Palestinians, Udovenko who once chaired UN General Assembly said: “Praising the Palestinian people who are outraged by the Israeli policy, we should pay the tribute to these young people — martyrs who laid their lives for the freedom of their people”.
However, I am afraid Udovenko would not see the printed refutation soon. From my personal experience, it is necessary to pass the court of appeals and finally, the Supreme Court for acquiring the final just verdict. I have already won several similar libel suits, but my opponents are tireless and they continue to disseminate groundless accusations.
Udovenko is the head of the Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities, while those who smeared his reputation claimed they are human rights watchdogs “fighting against xenophobia and anti-Semitism”. In the best Orwellian tradition, they victimize any critics of Israeli policy (calling this “a modern form of anti-Semitism”) and accusing them of being paid with “the Saudi money”. One of the most vocal here is Yossif Zissels who prefers to being presented as “the president of the congress of the national communities of Ukraine” while he chairs a number of organizations, among them the “Zionist federation of Ukraine” and serves as a board member in a number of structures of the European and world Jewry. For years, his message has been the same (quote): “An alliance with the Arab countries would worsen the Ukrainian-Israeli ties”.
I am wondering why the alleged “Saudi money” has been picked up by Israeli lobbyists to smear the critics around the world. Recently, a good friend of mine — writer Israel Shamir from Jaffa — wrote that his wife had heard about “the Saudi money” allegedly paid to him, but he had to disappoint her as she asked him to pay the bills.
I even have no idea as to how the Saudi national currency looks like. On the contrary, self-proclaimed “human rights activists” are desperately wresting for generous grants from some Western embassies and private foundations — “to monitor xenophobia and anti-Semitism”. Recently, I found a new piece about me in the report funded by the George Soros foundation in Kyiv: “On television observing world news, Ihor Slissarenko is obviously imposing the events in the Middle East as the prime news, being kind to the Palestinians and Iraqis and negative toward Israel and the US”.
If so, I do not mind. “Being kind” to suppressed and humiliated people is neither a crime, nor a sin or journalistic malpractice. I even see in it professional and human merit. And this is the first time I would not fill in a libel suit.
— Ihor Slissarenko is a journalist and scholar based in Kiev, Ukraine.
