Israel is demanding that Ukraine bar the parliamentary candidacy of Prof. Georgy Tchokin, president of Ukraine's largest private university and considered the country's most influential disseminator of anti-Semitic propaganda.

Israel Ambassador to Ukraine Naomi Ben-Ami and senior Foreign Ministry officials have made it clear to colleagues at the Ukrainian foreign ministry and presidential bureau that if they do not take harsh measures against Tchokin, it will cloud Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko's planned official visit to Israel in two months.

Yushchenko, who is interested in promoting Ukraine's relations with the United States and other Western countries, ascribes great importance to the visit. Israel's protests against anti-Semitism in Ukraine took on new force after last week's attack by skinheads on two yeshiva students in Kiev. One of the victims was flown to Israel this week and remains unconscious.

Tchokin, 51, is the founder and president of the Inter-regional Academy of Personal Management, which has 30,000 students at dozens of branches throughout Ukraine and an international branch aimed at attracting foreign enrollment. The university grants degrees in law, economics, business, accounting, political science and "practical medicine and psychology."

The university used to be a state institution, affiliated with famous Ukrainian politicians such as former president Leonid Kravchuk and past foreign ministers. It was privatized several years ago and funded by tuition and donations, but the public still views it as a state institution, since it provides professional training for senior civil servants.

Tchokin has served as president for three years, during which time he has turned the university into the largest purveyor of anti-Semitic material in Ukraine. An examination by the Ukrainian security service and national security council found that a substantial portion of the university's funds comes from Arab organizations and countries like Saudi Arabia.

The university hosted a conference in July entitled, "Dialog between civilizations: Zionism is the greatest threat to modern civilization." The conference was attended by diplomatic representatives from Arab countries and Iran, as well as many from other countries. One guest of honor and speaker at the conference was David Duke, the American anti-Semite and racist who was an instrumentalmember of the Ku Klux Klan. Levko Lukianenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the ruling party of former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, also attended the conference.

Despite protests by Israel and Jewish organizations overseas, including in the United States and Western Europe, supporters of Yushchenko's new regime say Tchokin and his university should not be taken seriously, and any action taken against it would merely bolster its prestige.
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