By Sergei Dibrov
During the debates that have emerged in connection with the recent resolution passed by the European Parliament, I directed a fellow discussant’s attention to the fact that all the cries of indignation about the awarding of the title of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera are coming from Russia and Poland, as well from individual representatives of the Jewish community. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has an equable attitude to the issue of the “heroization of Bandera.” I think there are serious historical reasons for this.
The most critical stage in the Jewish people’s struggle for independence falls within the period of the 1930s and 1940s. There is nothing surprising about the fact that their strivings resembled the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people. Both processes took place roughly at the same time and were formed on the exact same territory; thus, they were destined to become virtual twins. Serving as the foundation of the Ukrainian and Jewish movements were, respectively, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and the Jewish Legion, national military units that were organized as part of the imperial armies during the First World War. Their cadres came from the Ukrainian and Jewish scouting organizations Plast, Tzofim, and Beitar. A prominent role in the liberation struggle of both peoples was played by radical nationalists, who had wagered on force and were grouped around authoritarian, illegal organizations. In Ukraine they were headed by Yevhen Konovalets. The leader of the revisionist Zionists was Vladimir Zhabotinsky, whom David Ben-Gurion nicknamed “Vladimir Hitler,” Mussolini—“a Jewish fascist,” and the British press—“the Jewish Garibaldi.”
Ukrainian and Jewish radical organizations (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Haganah, Irgun) adopted similar methods: terrorist acts targeting official authorities (British, Polish, Soviet); raids on postal branches and banks, and other kinds of appropriations; political murders; ferocious resistance to the encroachments of other peoples (Arabs, Poles) on their ethnic territory; and the search for external, situational, and permanent allies.
After the deaths of their respective leaders, a split into rival groups took place in the nationalist movements in both Palestine and Ukraine. In Ukraine in 1940, the young Stepan Bandera became the leader of those who sought to rely on their own strength, while in Palestine, the equally young Avraham Stern united around himself the supporters of collaboration with Hitler in an organization called LEHI[Hebrew acronym Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or Freedom Fighters of Israel; also known as the Stern Gang—trans.]. In the fall of 1940, after France’s defeat, the leaders of LEHI signed a memorandum with the official representative of the Third Reich, Werner Otto von Hentig, in which both sides declared their intent to establish an independent Jewish state and to mobilize fighters for this among the Jews of Eastern Europe. One year later, in occupied Lviv, Yaroslav Stetsko proclaimed the restoration of Ukrainian statehood, an act that greatly angered the German authorities. Stetsko and Bandera were quickly dispatched to a concentration camp, and some members of the Ukrainian government were executed by the Nazis. A year later Stern was captured and shot. Eight years later the same fate befell Roman Shukhevych, one of the leaders of the OUN(B). Today Shukhevych is a Hero of Ukraine, while a city in Israel and a street in Jerusalem have been named after Stern.
As opposed to Ukraine, the Israeli people attained their independence in 1948. The leaders of their terrorist organizations became state leaders. Yitzhak Shamir, one of the leaders of LEHI, became the director of the Mossad, the head of the Likud Party, a Member of Parliament and Speaker of the Knesset, and held the posts of foreign minister and prime minister of Israel. He enjoyed a brilliant career despite LEHI’s collaboration with the Germans: in defiance of Zhabotinsky’s last will, for many years the members of that organization organized fatal ambushes of British soldiers, who were fighting against the Nazis.
Menachem Begin, a former member of Irgun, became a government minister, leader of a parliamentary faction, and later prime minister of Israel. In 1944 he masterminded the assassination of Lord Moyne, British Minister of State for the Middle East, just as Stepan Bandera had organized the assassination of Bronisław Pieracki, Poland’s Minister of Internal Affairs. Begin also organized terrorist acts targeting British government institutions, including the legendary bombing of the King David Hotel, which claimed the lives of dozens of people—not only Britons but Arabs, Americans, and Jews. The attack that Begin organized on the village of Deir Yassin, during which hundreds of civilians lost their lives, sparked indignation even among the Orthodox Jews living in a neighboring settlement, who came to the Arabs’ assistance. When a journalist once asked Begin why he so disliked his fellow terrorist, Yasser Arafat, he replied: “Because I am a terrorist, but he is a gangster!” During the ceremony to award the Nobel Peace Prize 1978 to Menachem Begin, it never even occurred to anyone to censure him for the anti-British armed uprising that, as the head of Irgun, he launched in December 1943, at the very time that the Allied forces were liberating Italy and, engaged in heavy fighting, were breaking through the German positions near the town of Monte Cassino.
The Nobel Peace Prize was also awarded to Shimon Peres, the former Haganah fighter, and to Yitzhak Rabin, a former member of the Palmach, the Haganah’s regular fighting force. It should be noted that no one ever bothered to ask Rabin why he had stopped fighting on the side of the British and joined the Jewish armed underground in May 1943, at the very time when the Battle of El Alamein was underway. It would not be remiss to mention that after the war Rabin, as one of the leaders of the Palmach, organized various terrorist acts, including attacking British police stations, blowing up bridges, and hijacking warships.
Just like in the organizations that were fighting for Ukraine’s independence, the relationships among the various armed Jewish clandestine formations were extremely complex. As political and ideological opponents, their members were perpetually in conflict with one another. This circumstance often led to armed confrontations and even planned military operations. But in today’s Israel everyone is shown respect. The names of “collaborators” and “fascists” are given to cities, streets, and roads. The funeral of the “terrorist” Menachem Begin, whose remains lie next to the British soldiers who were shot by Irgun fighters, was attended by thousands of people. The Memorial Day for Yitzhak Rabin is an annual event. Special state service decorations have been instituted for all the members of the armed underground formations.
The long and the short of it is that the state of Israel has an impartial attitude to its past: it pays tribute without exception to all its freedom fighters, regardless of the path they chose and what methods they adopted to attain their goal. Moreover, the state grants all its citizens the right to express their own personal opinions and attitudes to individuals and organizations. Thus, a few years ago the Israeli politician, Yosef Lapid, accused Viktor Yushchenko [the then president of Ukraine] of “glorifying Nazis,” alleging that documents stored in the archives of Yad Vashem point to Shukhevych’s involvement in the destruction of Jews. Later, the official representatives of Yad Vashem denied this, noting, however, that Lapid had every right to his own opinion, which may not always correspond to the view of historians.
Clearly, this is precisely where one must look for the reason explaining why the state of Israel, as opposed to individual representatives of the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples, demonstrates a completely satisfactory attitude to the question of establishing historical justice in relation to Ukraine’s freedom fighters.
Translator’s note: In the original Russian-language article, von Hentig’s name was misspelled as Henting. The translated text differs slightly from the original because of the addition of certain explanatory details for the sake of clarity.
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ABOUT STEPAN BANDERA AND ISRAEL’S HEROES
