Antisemitism rising in Hungary

The Herald reports:

Tiszavasvari is the stronghold of the Jobbik Party which is causing Hungarian Jews to fear for the future. …

Yet gypsies are not the only bogeymen Jobbik has in its sights, as a sign on the green opposite the mayoralty building suggests. In Hungarian and Persian it proudly announces that Tiszavasvari is twinned with Ardabil, a town in Iran.

There is no obvious reason why a drab rust-belt town in Hungary’s former mining area should seek links to a city in a hardline Islamic Republic 3220km away. The real purpose is to show their mutual loathing of Israel. …

“You can see Jobbik’s true nature through this,” said Peter Feldmajer, the president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, which represents an estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews, nearly 90 per cent of whom still refuse to disclose their religion publicly. “They hate the Jewish people, and so does the Iranian Government.”

How sad that 90% of Jews have to hide their religion.

But as the global banking crisis hit Hungary hard, leaving more than one in 10 jobless, Jobbik revived a folk devil – the wealthy, all-controlling Jews, who were traditionally influential in the finance world.

Jewish community leaders have been attacked in the street and cemeteries desecrated. As well as anti-Semitism rallies, far-right biker gangs have held ugly demonstrations known as “Step on the Gas” days. Gyongyosi was castigated recently for saying that a “security” register should be created of Hungarian MPs and civil servants who were of “Jewish origin”.

I find an MP calling for a Jewish register chilling. We have seen this happen before. This is one of the reasons why I support Israel as a safe country for Jews – the history of persecution in Europe was not just about the Holocaust.

Jobbik are vigorously anti-globalisation being populist and nationalist. They rail against “Israeli businessmen of buying up property in the country wholescale.”

The Jobbik candidate for President of Hungary has made the following statements:

• I would be glad if those who call themselves proud Hungarian Jews would go and play with their own little circumcised pricks instead of slurring me
  
• “advised” the “liberal-bolshevik zionists” to “start thinking of where to flee and where to hide” in a 2008 speech
• The only way to talk to people like you is by assuming the style of Hamas. I wish all of you lice-infested, dirty murderers will receive Hamas’ ‘kisses

Jobbik are somewhere between neo-Nazis and actual Nazis. They are now the third most popular party in Hungary.

In 1938 the Hungarian Government banned Jews from government employment and from editing newspapers.No private employer could have more than 12% Jewish employees. Most Jews lost the right to vote. In 1941 Jews were banned from marrying non-Jews. Note Germany did not invade Hungary until 1944.

Winston Churchill in 1944 said:

 “There is no doubt that this persecution of Jews in Hungary and their expulsion from enemy territory is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world….”

Never Again.