[News] Israel helps Ukraine whitewash its Nazis

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-helps-ukraine-whitewash-its-nazis/36911>
Israel helps Ukraine whitewash its Nazis

Asa Winstanley <https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley> and Ali
Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> The
Electronic Intifada
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/electronic-intifada> 23 December 2022
------------------------------
[image: A man in military uniform overlooks a desert]

Wearing the “Wollfsangel” symbol used by Hitler’s fighters in World War II,
Ukrainian Azov fighter Illia Samoilenko vists the Masada archelogical site
in Israel. (AzovstalFam/Twitter)

Representatives of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/azov-battalion> have been touring
Israel to drum up support for the unit’s imprisoned fighters. They have
been meeting with Israeli politicians and soldiers.

Azov intelligence officer Illia Samoilenko was released in a prisoner
exchange with Russia in September.

He had been one of the hundreds of Azov fighters who surrendered in May at
the end of the long Russian siege of the eastern city of Mariupol.

“Israel values freedom, values strength, Israel values honor. It’s the same
things that we also value,” he told
<https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2022-12-20/ty-article/.premium/downplaying-far-right-ties-ukrainian-war-hero-goes-on-israeli-publicity-binge/00000185-306c-dcac-a185-b8efb39e0000>
Israeli newspaper *Haaretz* this week.

Samoilenko also told
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-4-months-in-russian-solitary-ukrainian-officer-visits-israel-tells-his-story/>
*The
Times of Israel* that “he sees Israel and Ukraine on the same side, the
civilized battling the uncivilized in a struggle for the future of
humanity,” the outlet summarized.

“We have prosperity, beautiful, prosperous, beautiful civilization, and
they have medieval cavemen,” he said. It seems the “they” in this case are
the Palestinians and the Russians, who Samoilenko regards as “uncivilized.”

Along for the Israeli tour with Samoilenko is Yulia Fedosiuk, the wife of
an imprisoned Azov fighter and a far-right activist in her own right.

Both were on a charm offensive this week, as part of a wider push to
whitewash Azov’s image in the West.
[image: Three people in suits pose for a photo]

Azov members Illia Samoilenko and Yulia Fedosiuk met with Naama Lazimi of
Israel’s Labor Party. (AzovstalFam/Twitter)

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, it was widely acknowledged that
the Azov Battalion promoted Nazi ideology.

The Anti-Defamation League, a major Jewish communal and Israel lobby group,
for instance, warned in 2019
<https://mobile.twitter.com/adl/status/1176238081688702981> that Azov was a
“Ukrainian extremist group” with “ties to neo-Nazis and white supremacists.”

But now with Western governments arming Ukraine, including the Azov
Battalion, in a proxy war against Russia, there is a concerted effort to
hide this ugly reality from public view.

Consequently – with help from the media and now Israel and its lobby – Azov
has in recent months attempted to rebrand itself.

Seeking a stamp of approval from Israel is a time-honored strategy of
European and American far-right extremists seeking to gain mainstream
legitimacy.

In May *The Times* of London reported
<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/azov-battalion-drops-neo-nazi-symbol-exploited-by-russian-propagandists-lpjnsp7qg>
that Azov was planning to change its symbol from the wolfsangel – a
far-right symbol associated with a division of the German army during
Hitler’s Nazi regime.

But even that surface-level whitewash seems to have been too much of a
change for Azov to endure. The symbol remains visible in all of Azov’s
online outlets.

Recent <https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/status/1587834642681544707> Azov
social media postings
<https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/status/1585288556884512770> show their
fighters still using the wolfsangel.

1/2 Lieutenant colonel Denys "Redis" Prokopenko, the commander of the AZOV
RGT and the Hero of Ukraine, is absolutely selfless. Redis, as an older
brother, cares about the warriors of the RGT and will fight side by side
with each one against the enemy. pic.twitter.com/ymc7XQc2ne
<https://t.co/ymc7XQc2ne>
— AZOV Regiment (@Polk_Azov) November 2, 2022
<https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/status/1587834642681544707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The street dedicated to the Heroes of the AZOV Regiment was presented in
Kyiv.#AZOV_Regiment_news
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/AZOV_Regiment_news?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#loyalty <https://twitter.com/hashtag/loyalty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#heroism <https://twitter.com/hashtag/heroism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#pride <https://twitter.com/hashtag/pride?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/YGIcJ9p560 <https://t.co/YGIcJ9p560>
— AZOV Regiment (@Polk_Azov) October 26, 2022
<https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/status/1585288556884512770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

And photos posted by a pro-Azov Twitter account, the “Association of
Families of the Defenders of Azovstal” show that Samoilenko and Fedosiuk
visited Masada, where Samoilenko wore the Nazi-linked symbol on his
uniform.

Masada is the site of a mythical
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/22/israel-masada-myth-doubts>
last stand by Jewish fighters against Roman forces. Today, Israel holds
swearing-in ceremonies for its new soldiers there, and they pledge that
“Masada shall not fall again.”

— Асоціація родин захисників «Азовсталі» (@AzovstalFam) December 17, 2022
<https://twitter.com/AzovstalFam/status/1604132679221334016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The Azovstal association’s Telegram account posted
<https://t.me/AzovstalFamilies/1158> photos of the Azov members at Masada
and stated, “When today in Israel we talk about the defense of Mariupol,
the Israelis … constantly repeat: ‘Mariupol is your Masada.’”

As well as Masada, the tweets show that the two Ukrainian militants also
met with reservist
<https://twitter.com/AzovstalFam/status/1604852420605054982> Israeli
soldiers, attended
<https://twitter.com/AzovstalFam/status/1605560188005601280> a film
screening and met with Naama Lazimi – a leading
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-08-11/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-symbolic-choice-in-labor-primary-that-could-push-longtime-voters-away/00000182-8d67-d68b-a3e2-ff67a63f0000>
Israeli politician in the Labor Party, which is part of the outgoing
coalition government.

— Асоціація родин захисників «Азовсталі» (@AzovstalFam) December 15, 2022
<https://twitter.com/AzovstalFam/status/1603370265206931457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Documented ties to Nazism

During the meeting with Lazimi, Samoilenko “debunked the myths created by
Russian propaganda about the Azov regiment,” the Azovstal association
claimed <https://t.me/AzovstalFamilies/1147> on its Telegram channel.

This seems to be a reference to the Russian government’s accurate claim
since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February that the Azov
Battalion is a Nazi organization.

But recall that this wasn’t only a claim from Russia, it was widely
acknowledged and reported in Western media, including by the EU-funded
<https://www.bellingcat.com/about/> “investigative” website Bellingcat.

In 2019, Bellingcat extensively documented
<https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/02/15/defend-the-white-race-american-extremists-being-co-opted-by-ukraines-far-right/>
the battalion’s international outreach to white supremacist groups, noting
that “Azov’s interest in reaching American extremists and the Ukrainian
group’s comfort in cooperating with neo-Nazis in the US and West was on
display” until at least 2018 – four years after the Azov battalion was
integrated into Ukraine’s national guard.

But as the US, UK and EU wage their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine,
Western media have largely fallen in line, portraying Azov sympathetically
as the “defenders of Mariupol,” as misunderstood nationalists and as the
victims of “Putin’s propaganda.”

Even the Anti-Defamation League, which previously condemned Azov’s Nazi
ties, is falling into line.

After the Russian invasion, the ADL engaged in blatant Holocaust revisionism
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-lobby-group-adl-rehabilitates-hitlers-accomplices-ukraine/35021>
in order to whitewash Hitler’s wartime collaborators who are today
venerated as national heroes in Ukraine even though they helped the German
leader murder hundreds of thousands of Poles and Jews during World War II.

The ADL is now also helping to airbrush Azov. Recently, the Israel lobby
group claimed
<https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/08/adl-ukraines-azov-battalion-far-right/>
that the Azov Battalion’s 2014 integration into Ukraine’s national guard
meant that the Azov military unit had split from the broader far-right Azov
political movement and from the movement’s founder Andriy Biletsky.

As a consequence, the ADL now says that it “does not see Azov Regiment as
the far-right group it once was.”

But in 2019, Bellingcat had already reported on “newly uncovered statements
by a senior law-enforcement official” in Ukraine that “suggest that
incorporation of the Azov Regiment into the National Guard of Ukraine
didn’t affect the far-right ideology espoused by the former’s members – and
instead allowed Azov to obtain sophisticated weaponry and build their own
political party.”
“Restore the honor of the white race”

In recent months, the Azov Battalion appears to have renamed itself the
“Azov Regiment,” another apparent attempt to legitimize itself as a normal
element of the Ukrainian state and whitewash its Nazi image while
maintaining all the same policies.

This name change was played up in a puff piece by *The Jerusalem Post* this
week <https://www.jpost.com/international/article-725351>, which claimed
that “the Azov Battalion [is] the predecessor of the Azov Regiment.”

But just as when the US and its allies have repeatedly attempted to rebrand
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/questions-al-qaidas-rebranded-syria-affiliate-wont-answer>
the Syrian branch of al-Qaida as “moderate rebels,” such
<https://thegrayzone.com/2021/06/09/washington-positioning-syrian-al-qaeda-mohammad-jolani-asset/>
cosmetic changes are unlikely to fool anyone outside the ranks of spineless
mainstream media journalists.

And despite Samoilenko and Fedosiuk’s charming of the Israeli press this
week, there’s absolutely no reason to think that Azov has moved away from
its racist, anti-Semitic roots.

As well as still using the Nazi wolfsangel symbol, recent Azov social media
postings <https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/status/1585288556884512770> show
that the group’s founder Andriy Biletsky is still a regular presence at
Azov parades.

Biletsky has
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876>
“pledged to restore the honor of the white race” and when he was in
parliament he advanced laws forbidding “race mixing.”

— Асоціація родин захисників «Азовсталі» (@AzovstalFam) December 19, 2022
<https://twitter.com/AzovstalFam/status/1604852420605054982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

In 2014 he wrote that “the historic mission of our nation in this critical
moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their
survival. A crusade against the Semite-led untermenschen.” A dedicated
fascist

Despite the sympathetic treatment she has received
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/world/europe/ukraine-mariupol-soldiers-wives.html>
this year from the same Western media that valorized the Azov Nazis, Yulia
Fedosiuk too, is an active part of the Ukrainian far-right.

“One of my best friends, he is a Jew and he is in Azov,” Fedosiuk claimed
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-4-months-in-russian-solitary-ukrainian-officer-visits-israel-tells-his-story/>
in a *Times of Israel* interview this week.

Samoilenko made similar claims in his *Haaretz* interview
<https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2022-12-20/ty-article/.premium/downplaying-far-right-ties-ukrainian-war-hero-goes-on-israeli-publicity-binge/00000185-306c-dcac-a185-b8efb39e0000>,
an assertion which the paper noted he was “unable to back up immediately by
providing names.”

In a revealing piece on Fedosiuk
<https://medium.com/@pitt_bob/fascists-in-defence-of-democratic-values-the-whitewashing-of-the-ukrainian-far-right-continues-dc7a90ca8082>,
researcher Bob Pitt observes that “Azov’s propensity for double-talk and
denial is particularly notable in connection with anti-Semitism, where
assurances to western journalists that the movement welcomes Jewish members
are contradicted elsewhere by expressions of extreme hostility towards
Jews.”

Pitt writes that Fedosiuk is a dedicated fascist who rants against feminism
and LGBTQ rights and has valorized early 20th century Romanian fascist
leader Corneliu Codreanu.

Codreanu was a virulent anti-Semite who once declared that
<https://us-holocaust-museum.medium.com/romanian-fascist-codreanu-back-in-spotlight-21273d8b590b>
“The historical mission of our generation is solving the kike problem”
(“kike” is an extremely derogatory term for Jews.)

As Pitt noted, when Fedosiuk worked for Azov’s publishing house Plomin, it
published Ukrainian translations of writings by Codreanu, the Italian
fascist Julius Evola and other notorious figures from Europe’s fascist
history.
Nazis in power

Israel has close ties to both Russia and Ukraine. Despite President
Volodymyr Zelensky complaining that Israel has declined to provide Ukraine
with the “Iron Dome” missile system, arms, training and fighters from
Israel have reached Ukraine – including the Azov Battalion.

In April, video emerged of Israeli mercenaries
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/mercenaries-ukraine-thank-israeli-government>
fighting in Ukraine, thanking the Israeli government for “helping us” in
their war against Russia.

Also that month, video posted online by Azov
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-still-arming-ukrainian-nazis>
showed that Israeli anti-tank weapons were being used by the unit.

The Azov Battalion began as a gang of far-right street thugs. Its activists
formed the vanguard of the 2014 US-backed “Maidan” coup
<https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-hidden-origin-of-the-escalating-ukraine-russia-conflict>
which overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. Soon after, it was
integrated into Ukraine’s armed forces, where it remains.

In 2018, Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack wrote
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine/24876>
to the Israeli government to object that the country’s aid to Ukraine was
being used by neo-Nazis.

In response, the government confirmed that its arms licenses to Ukraine
were granted “in full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
other government entities” but did not deny arming Ukrainian Nazis.

The Electronic Intifada’s 2018 exposé of Israel’s arming of Ukrainian
Nazis caused
a minor diplomatic incident
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-still-arming-ukrainian-nazis>,
when Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel wrote a formal complaint to *Haaretz*
after the newspaper echoed our reporting.

Mack petitioned Israel’s highest court to stop the state arming Ukrainian
Nazis. The government responded by requesting hearings be held behind
closed doors and imposing a gag order on the press
<https://www.the7eye.org.il/334249>.

*Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist and Ali Abunimah is
executive director of The Electronic Intifada.*
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