Far-right Polish Lawmaker Extinguishes Hanukkah Menorah in Antisemitic Incident in Parliament
"Grzegorz Braun, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation party, has previously alleged a conspiracy to turn Poland into a 'Jewish state.' New Prime Minister Tusk called the incident a disgrace, as Israel's ambassador to Poland called 'to banish the darkness, now!'"
Far-right Polish Lawmaker Extinguishes Hanukkah Menorah in Antisemitic Incident in Parliament
A far-right lawmaker in the Polish parliament used a fire extinguisher on Tuesday and put out a candle on a menorah that was lit for the Jewish holiday Hanukkah.
All major political forces quickly denounced the incident carried out by Grzegorz Braun, and said there would be no tolerance for antisemitic and xenophobic behavior in the Sejm, the Polish parliament.
The speaker of the parliament, Szymon Holownia, called the act "absolutely scandalous" and excluded him from the day's parliamentary proceedings. He said he was reporting him to prosecutors. "Poland is home of all religions," Holownia said.
TVN24 showed footage of Braun with a red fire extinguisher putting out the fire and causing smoke or haze to fill the area. The parliamentary proceedings were temporarily suspended.
After extinguishing the Hanukkah menorah, Braun explained his actions as "restoring normalcy and harmony by ending the act of the victory of Satan, of the Talmud, and bigotry. You are not aware of what is innocently called 'Hanukkah.'"
In a video from the scene, people are heard reacting with cries of, "Shame on you!" He responds, "Those who participate in acts of antisemitic nature should be ashamed." Following the menorah extinguishing, he shared antisemitic posts on X (formerly Twitter).
After the incident, the candles were lit again.
Tags
Who is online
65 visitors
Jews and Palestinians Are Both Victims of Western racism
Hopes for peace are now a thing of the past; the only winner in the Israel-Hamas war will be war itself
One cannot ignore the antisemitic undertone of many who praise Israel. In a letter defending Israel of my criticism, a Slovenian Catholic wrote that Israel's main problem is "neither Hamas nor the 'king of the north' – as Israel's next great assaulter (Russia-Iran-Turkey) is called in the New Testament – but its insistence on living in sin and away of God's path, because nowadays Israel is the most atheist country in the world."
Good luck with such supporters! It's no wonder that even extreme right-wingers known for their antisemitism, such as France's Marine Le Pen, are now unequivocally supporting Israel.
This is the distorted background against which to judge the reactions of many who criticized Israel for acting as if it has the full right to destroy Hamas (I claimed the same two months ago at the Frankfurt Book Fair). My total solidarity is with the victims of the attack as well as with Jews for whom the attack evoked memories of antisemitism and confronted them with fresh antisemitic threats. I clearly stated that Israel has the right to defend itself.
What a sad commentary.
An historical and cultural anti-semitism rearing up again.
Although there have always been righteous Poles, there is a long history of virulent Polish anti-semitism.
Happily, the jerk who did this had been subject to strong denunciations from the Polish political leadership and from a Polish Catholic cardinal.