History of Israel's recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as genocide of the Ukrainian people - (2007 - 2025 - ?)

In April 2025, in Jerusalem, in the Wohl Rose Garden (Wohl Rose Garden), between the Knesset and the Supreme Court, the first monument to the victims of the 1932-1933 Ukrainian Holodomor was installed in Israel.
The Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was a tragic event in history, during which an artificially created famine organized by the Soviet government led to the death of a massive number of people. It was part of Stalin's policy of collectivization and forced grain seizures, which resulted in mass starvation in Ukraine.
According to various sources, the number of victims varies, but the most frequently cited figures range from 3 to 7 million deaths. This was an act of brutal repression of the Ukrainian population, including peasants who resisted collectivization and lost their land.
The Holodomor became one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in history, and in recent decades, the question of recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people has been actively discussed on the international stage.
In November 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that 38 countries and international organizations have recognized the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine annually honors the memory of the victims of these tragic events on the fourth Saturday of November.
On May 15, 2003, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in an official address to the people of Ukraine recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide.
On November 28, 2006, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the law «On the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine», interpreting the events of 1932-1933 as the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Despite individual initiatives and calls, Israel still has not officially recognized the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine as an act of genocide.
Let’s briefly recall the history of this issue.

2007–2008: First Calls and Israel's Rejection

In the late 2000s, Ukraine launched a campaign for the international recognition of the 1932–33 Holodomor as genocide. President Viktor Yushchenko appealed to world leaders, including Israel, asking them to politically assess this tragedy. However, Israel’s official position at the time was negative. The Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Zina Kalay-Klaytman stated in 2008 that, while recognizing the Holodomor as the greatest tragedy of the Ukrainian people, Israel “cannot recognize the 1932-1933 famine as an act of ethnic genocide”​.
In other words, Jerusalem did not consider that the famine was directed solely against Ukrainians. Israeli analysts noted that such statements reflected the views in the Israeli Foreign Ministry and were not the final position of the state​, however, no steps towards recognition were taken.
Israel maintained a neutral line at that time, avoiding official declarations on the Holodomor, partly considering the "delicate nature of the topic" for relations with Russia and the unique status of the term "genocide" (primarily associated with the Shoah) in the country’s domestic politics.

2016: The Holodomor Issue on the Knesset's Agenda

Almost a decade later, after the Revolution of Dignity and in connection with the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, the topic of the Holodomor once again came to the forefront of bilateral relations.
In 2016, a group of Ukrainian public figures submitted an appeal to the Knesset for the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide.
For the first time in the history of Israeli-Ukrainian relations, Knesset members officially addressed this issue: in September 2016, a delegation from the Verkhovna Rada visited Israel, and then a reciprocal visit took place in Kyiv. As part of the events commemorating the 75th anniversary of Babyn Yar, Israel's honorary consul in Western Ukraine, Oleg Vishnyakov organized a visit by Israeli parliamentarians to the National Holodomor Memorial Museum.
The delegation, which included Knesset vice-speakers Tali Ploskov and Nava Boker, MP Yehi’el Bar, coalition leader David Bitan, and Knesset director-general Albert Sakharovich, was deeply moved by the exhibition.
The result of this visit was the first attempt at official recognition of the Holodomor in Israel.
In November 2016, the Knesset presidium introduced a resolution on the recognition of the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people, at the suggestion of MP Nava Boker (Likud party).
“For many years, the Knesset refused to discuss the Holodomor... It is time to change that,” – said Boker at the time​.
The resolution sought to officially recognize that the Stalinist regime deliberately caused mass starvation against Ukrainians and condemn these actions as genocide. However, despite its inclusion on the agenda, the consideration of the matter was postponed. The Knesset never voted on this resolution in 2016, partly due to the political sensitivity of the issue.
The head of the Vaad of Ukraine (Association of Jewish Organizations of Ukraine) Yosef Zissels then noted, that for a positive decision, extensive explanatory work with Israeli society and elites was necessary​ – “the memory of the Holodomor was insufficiently known in Israel, and there was a need to overcome skepticism and ignorance”.

2017: Position of Israeli Authorities and Diplomats

In 2017, official Jerusalem continued to maintain a cautious stance.
Israeli leaders made it clear that the likelihood of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide was extremely low.
Thus, the Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Environmental Protection Zeev Elkin in August 2017 stated that the chances of the Knesset passing a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people “are extremely low”. According to him, Israel is very cautious on such matters and is not rushing to make historical-political statements.
The reasons for this stance were both political and conceptual. On one hand, Israel sought to avoid spoiling relations with Russia – a key player in the Middle East. Observers noted that the Israeli government took into account Moscow's influence in Syria and other regions.
On the other hand, Israeli diplomats pointed to the nature of the Holodomor itself. The Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Joel Lion noted, that during the famine, many Jews and representatives of other nationalities also perished, which is why in Israel, some historians tend to view this tragedy not as an exclusively ethnic genocide but as part of a broader repressive policy – a sort of “sociocide” against the peasantry.
“It is very hard for us to say that this was directed against the Ukrainian people,” – openly admitted Ambassador Lion, explaining why Israel does not officially use the term “genocide” in this case. Thus, the state's position remained: recognize the scale and tragedy of the Holodomor but avoid the legal term “genocide”.

2018: Akram Khason's Bill and Public Response

Nevertheless, in 2018, Israel made another attempt to revise its previous approach.
Knesset member Akram Khason (the “Kulanu” party), representing the Druze community, after a trip to Ukraine, decided to push for the recognition of the Holodomor at the legislative level.
On February 7, 2018, Khason submitted a bill to the Knessetthat proposed declaring December 6 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine and officially recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people​.
In the explanatory note it was noted that “the famine of 1932–33 was planned by the Soviet authorities with the aim of striking the Ukrainian people and its national identity​”.
The deputy himself explained that the idea arose after visiting the Holodomor Museum in Kyiv in December 2017: he was the only one from the Israeli delegation to visit the museum and was shocked by what he saw​.
After studying historical research (including the works of Raphael Lemkin and conclusions from Ukrainian and Western historians), Khason came to the conclusion that the Stalinist regime deliberately caused mass famine as a weapon against the population of Ukraine, which fully fits the definition of genocide.
He emphasized that he was acting out of moral considerations: as a citizen of Israel, raised on the memory of the Holocaust, he considered it his country’s moral duty to recognize this tragedy as genocide.
Khason, not being Ukrainian or Jewish, claimed his impartiality:
“No one can accuse me of having a vested interest… But my upbringing does not allow me to calmly approach such horrible things.”
“I don’t understand how anyone could be angry about this, and I am not obliged to please anyone,” he said. “I work in the Israeli parliament – a democratic state with human values, founded after genocide. Why shouldn’t we recognize this genocide?”
Khason’s bill attracted significant attention, both in Israeli media in Russian and Hebrew, and in Ukraine. His initiative received support from the Ukrainian diaspora and diplomats but faced resistance from within the Israeli establishment.
Netanyahu's government was cool to the idea: the bill was not approved by the coalition and was never brought to a vote.
At that time, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman publicly called Khason's initiative “nonsense”​.
According to Reuters, the ruling coalition strongly resisted the bill, and it was “far from ratification”​.
The Russian Federation also reacted immediately: the Deputy Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Tel Aviv, Leonid Frolov warned Israel, saying in an interview with Army Radio of Israel that discussing such a law is “a bad step” and “not the best time” for it​.
The transparent hint was that Moscow would perceive the recognition of the Holodomor as a hostile gesture.
However, Akram Khason stood his ground and rejected accusations of politicization: he emphasized that he was acting not to please or harm anyone, but based on the values of Israeli democracy. “I am not obliged to please anyone… Why shouldn’t we, a state founded after genocide, recognize this genocide?” – said Khason.
According to him, the reluctance to call things by their name only casts a shadow on Israel's moral image​. He also pointed out that attempts to “please Putin” do not bring Israel honor, reminding that neither Erdogan nor the Russian leadership show such delicacy toward Israel.
Despite these arguments, Khason's initiative did not progress beyond the initial stage: the Knesset did not have time to consider it before its dissolution (in late 2018, Israel began a series of early elections). Thus, the 2018 attempt at the legislative level was unsuccessful, but it significantly raised awareness of the Holodomor within Israeli society and elites.
Diapora and Social Organizations (2018)
In parallel with the parliamentary efforts, the Ukrainian diaspora in Israel and related organizations intensified their efforts to honor the victims of the Holodomor and raise public attention. In 2018, for the 85th anniversary of the tragedy, an international campaign “Запали свічку пам’яті!” (“Light a Candle of Remembrance!”) took place in Israel.
On November 1, 2018, at the Greek Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Tel Aviv a memorial service was held for those who perished during the Holodomor​.
The memorial event was organized by the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel in collaboration with the local Ukrainian community and UGCC. Ukrainian Ambassador Gennady Nadolenko in his speech talked about the consequences of the Holodomor and stressed the need to preserve the memory of the Stalinist regime’s crime​. He particularly emphasized the importance of supporting the Ukrainian community on the issue of Israel recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide​. Participants of the event – members of the diaspora and diplomats – read the names of 85 children who died in 1932–33 and lit memorial candles​.
In addition to religious and memorial events, activists attracted wide public attention. https://nikk.agency/en/of-1932-1933/