Growing up as an Australian of Armenian origin (Armenians from Egypt), I became aware of the concept of genocide, and its impact on social identity, from an early age, I was the only Armenian at school, so explaining what it was to be Armenian to Anglo-majority kids was quite frustrating – especially when they couldn’t even pronounce my name.

Be that as it may, I dealt with issues of diaspora, identity and exile for as long as I can remember. No, I couldn’t articulate those topics as a child. However, the importance of genocide commemorative activities, the weight of history, and their role in forming ethnic identity has been a constant theme in my life.

That is why I am going to elaborate on a topic which may seem distant from me, but is actually close to my experience.

Ukrainian nationalism, Poland and the Volhynia massacre

First, a declaration; I have no interest in promoting or demoting Ukrainian, or Polish or any type of hyper-nationalism. It is of no interest to me to advance any nationalist agenda, or propagate the views of Kyiv, Warsaw or the Kremlin.

This does not make me indifferent to hypernationalism, especially when the latter has destructive impacts on interethnic cooperation.

Poland is a staunch supporter of Kyiv in its current conflict with Moscow. Poland has taken in thousands of Ukrainian refugees displaced by the Russian invasion. On the international front, Warsaw vociferously defends the position of Kyiv in defiance of Moscow and its allies. For instance, Warsaw has denounced the role of Tehran, viewing the latter’s close political and military ties with Moscow as enabling and prolonging the suffering of Ukrainians.

However, Poland has an ongoing dispute with Kyiv, one that derails Ukraine’s plans to join the European Union.

The Polish government insists that Kyiv must accept responsibility for the massacres of Poles in 1943 in the Volhynia region. The latter is a historic region of central-eastern Europe, occupied by Poles, Ukrainians, Russians and other ethnicities. In 1943, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its associated Ukrainian Insurgent Army massacred thousands of Poles, intent on creating an ethnically pure post-Communist Ukrainian state. Collaborating with German forces, the antisemitism of the Ukrainian nationalists found common ground with the Nazi occupiers.

In Zelensky’s Ukraine, these collaborators are venerated as heroes. Warsaw has demanded that the Volhynia killings be officially recognised as genocide by the Kyiv authorities. In exchange, Warsaw promises to drop its objections to Ukraine joining the European Union.

In post-World War 2 Australia, anticommunist refugees from Eastern Europe found refuge – as well as in Canada, Britain and the United States. They imported not only their respective languages and cuisine, but also their ultranationalist reading of modern history. Long distance hypernationalism found a home in Australia, with each community struggling to find acceptance in the wider Anglophone society.

Social cohesion

I am not a ‘voice’ for Poland against Ukraine, or Ukraine against Russia – I have no interest in recycling any kind of hypernationalist division. But I do have a number of questions pertaining to the implementation of multiculturalism, or to use an expression currently in vogue – social cohesion.

How does hypernationalism contribute to social cohesion? It does not. In fact, the hyperventilating nationalism of right wing communities sabotages the very social cohesion they claim to adhere to. Regurgitating migrant-based nationalist resentments has a corrosive effect on building a multicultural, socially cohesive society.

Solidarity with Palestine is not antisemitic

In junior high school, I had a ‘friend’ – a person who would be called toxic in today’s terminology – who constantly verbally bullied me in class. Knowing that I was a supporter of the Palestinians, he would constantly raise the topic of the Entebbe raid. The 1976 Israeli operation to free hijacked hostages was an obvious success for Tel Aviv, and while it was in the past from the vantage point of the 1980s, it was in the recent past.

His behaviour was intended to intimidate and demoralise me, and raising Entebbe was one of his ploys. The other, knowing that my background is Egyptian (Armenians from Egypt) was to loudly praise the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israeli forces defeated the Egyptian and Syrian armies. He was, as I realised later, a malignant narcissist, and mocking my ethnic heritage was his way of inciting others against me.

He disappeared from my life a long time ago, but there is a lingering misconception which still pervades the mainstream media. Palestinian nationalism, and the protests in support of a Palestinian state, are not antisemitic. Please stop circulating the tired old cliche that anti-Zionism, and criticism of Israeli state policies, is automatically antisemitic.

The false equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is designed to delegitimise the Palestinian cause, and smear Palestine supporters as deranged fanatics driven by irrational hatred. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Monuments to Estonian Nazi collaborators in Toronto, Canada

We should be worried about antisemitism, but not from the Palestinians. Jewish organisations in Toronto, Canada, demanded (and succeeded) in forcing the removal of Estonian Waffen SS personnel from a monument at an Estonian-Canadian children’s summer camp. Hailing the veterans of the Estonian SS as freedom fighters, the authorities were worried by the false heroising of SS personnel as ‘freedom fighters’ rather than antisemitic and racist killers.

What kind of example do we set when we teach children (and adolescents) that the violently antisemitic Waffen SS and their Baltic collaborators were high-minded and noble fighters for freedom? When we minimise the crimes and predatory ideologies of wartime Nazi collaborators, we are not only whitewashing history, but also helping to rehabilitate the doctrines of the ultranationalist Right.

Of course the far right of yesteryear has changed; like all political ideologies, the ultranationalist mindset mutates and adapts to changing circumstances. Islamophobia is the preferred version of bigotry for the imperial powers, and we have all witnessed what decades of normalising Islamophobia produces. Let’s not ignore the role of mainstream political parties in encouraging and recycling Islamophobic talking points.

The most urgent task is to break down the divides between ethnic groups that hamper multiethnic cooperation.