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US Lifts Ban On Funding Neo-Nazi' Ukrainian Militia - The Jerusalem Post
US Lifts Ban On Funding Neo-Nazi' Ukrainian Militia - The Jerusalem Post
Jerusalem Post
Diaspora
By SAM SOKOL
Published: JANUARY 18, 2016 06:14
ukraine
(photo credit: REUTERS)
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With the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbol on its unit flash – which resembles a
black swastika on a yellow background – and founders drawn from the ranks
of the paramilitary national socialist group called “Patriot of Ukraine,” the
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3/30/22, 12:52 PM US lifts ban on funding ‘neo-Nazi’ Ukrainian militia - The Jerusalem Post
group would have been a fringe phenomenon in any Western nation, but with
its army unequipped to face the separatist threat in the east, Kiev actually
integrated Azov into its military forces.
According to a report in The Nation, the Pentagon lobbied the House Defense
Appropriations Committee to remove the Conyers-Yoho amendment from the
2016 defense budget, claiming it was unnecessary as such funding was
already prohibited under another law.
However, The Nation asserted that the law in question, known as the Leahy
Law, only prohibits funding to groups that have “committed a gross violation
of human rights,” which would not apply in this case.
The news that the Azov Battalion is now legally able to receive American aid
has enraged the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which last week successfully
blocked the battalion from holding a recruitment meeting in Nantes, France.
“This step is hardly surprising to anyone who has been following the growing
danger of Holocaust distortion in post-Communist Europe, and especially in
the Baltics, Ukraine and Hungary,” said Wiesenthal Center Jerusalem office
head Efraim Zuroff.
“In recent years, the United States has purposely ignored the glorification of
Nazi collaborators, the granting of financial benefits to those who fought
alongside the Nazis, and the systematic promotion of the canard of
equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes by these countries because
of various political interests.”
Likud MK Avraham Neguise also lambasted the decision, telling The Jerusalem
Post that “If the ban is lifted, funds may reach neo-Nazis, and their first target
is the Jewish community.”
Not everyone was so upset, however, with the Vaad of Ukraine, a Jewish
communal body comprising a number of different organizations and known
for its nationalist stance on many issues, coming out in favor of the move.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/us-lifts-ban-on-funding-neo-nazi-ukrainian-militia-441884 2/3
3/30/22, 12:52 PM US lifts ban on funding ‘neo-Nazi’ Ukrainian militia - The Jerusalem Post
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