Jewish entrepreneur supports Polish postulates in Lithuania

The son of well-known Israeli writer, Grigorij Kanowic and the Canadian businessman Dmitrij Kanowic do not understand why Lithuanian authorities do not allow bilingual street signs.

Kanowic was born before the war in Lithuania. His son is the head of the company Candid Opinion and he frequently visits Lithuania. A journal „Lietuvos rytas” asked him whether bilingual sings are considered to be an important aspect for ethnic minorities and he answered citing Israeli solutions. “In Israel street names are written in Hebrew and Arabic. A conflict between Jewish people and the Palestinian is still going on. It cannot be predicted when it would end but it does not cause any difficulties in writing those names in two languages.” – said the entrepreneur.

Kanowic stressed that everybody may not be pleased with that but nobody protests because people are hiding behind “common sense”. “I think that it should be similar in Lithuania. It is advisable to avoid triggering clashes and allow state institutions to make decisions in terms of national policy. I do not believe that the spelling of place names or Polish names is a real public problem ”– said Kanowic.

A new ruling coalition wrote in its agenda that they would solve issues concerned with the rights of ethnic minorities. The working team under the leadership of Culture Vice-Minister Edvard Trusevič, has managed to prepare a new draft of the Law on Ethnic Minorities.

Source: http://zw.lt/litwa/zydowski-przedsiebiorca-popiera-polskie-postulaty-na-litwie/

Tłumaczenie by Ewa Żakowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewa Żakowska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.