r/neoliberal • u/BubsyFanboy European Union • 3d ago
Polish parliament celebrates Hanukkah amid far-right protest outside News (Europe)
https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/12/30/polish-parliament-celebrates-hanukkah-amid-far-right-protest-outside/69
u/BubsyFanboy European Union 3d ago
!ping POLAND
An official ceremony to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah has been held in Poland’s parliament, one year on from when the same event was attacked with a fire extinguisher by far-right MP Grzegorz Braun.
Braun, who is now a member of the European Parliament, led a protest outside the building under the title “This is Poland, not Polin” – a slogan that uses the Hebrew name for Poland to suggest that Jews are trying to control the country.
Poland’s parliament has long invited Jewish leaders to celebrate Hanukkah every year. Today’s ceremony was joined by the speaker of the Senate, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, who took part in lighting the candles of the hanukkiah alongside Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich.
Ahead of the ceremony, Szymon Hołownia, the speaker of the Sejm, the more powerful lower house, declared that “parliament is and will remain a hospitable place”.
“Just as we celebrate the Christian Christmas here, we will also allow other national and religious minorities to feel as if they were at home here,” he continued.
Before the Holocaust, Poland was home to around 3.5 million Jews, roughly 10% of the country’s population. Now, however, the community numbers only around 16,000, according to the most recent census.
Meanwhile, outside parliament, dozens of supporters of Braun – whose Confederation of the Polish Crown (Konfederacja Korony Polskiej) party is part of the broader far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group that sits in parliament – gathered.
Some brought with them fire extinguishers in reference to last year’s incident, in which Braun sought to put out the candles on the hannukiah. In April this year, he was charged with the crime of insulting a religious group – which carries a potential prison sentence – after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity.
However, soon after he was elected to the European Parliament, meaning he once again gained immunity. In October, justice minister Adam Bodnar submitted a request for Braun to have his European immunity lifted. It is still being processed by the European Parliament.
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u/BubsyFanboy European Union 3d ago
Speaking this evening, Braun told his supporters that, “according to the false doctrine” being imposed on Poland, “us non-Jews have only one choice: to serve like animals, like cattle…This is a teaching spread for 2,000 years [by Jews], since the manger and the cross of Christ were rejected”.
“Everyone who takes part in this [Hanukkah] ritual is indeed making such a choice,” continued Braun, who has a long history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. They “aspire to be a useful beast… in the process of trampling into the ground all those who reject this dictate”.
“Do you want a future for your children that is shared by children in Gaza today? Do you want such a fate for Polish children? A fate of slaves, subhumans, at the mercy of the Jewish Übermensch?”
In recent weeks, Braun’s party has placed billboards around Poland reading: “Hanukkah or Christmas? Europe, the choice is yours!”
Figures from Poland’s ruling coalition, which ranges from the left to centre-right, have been highly critical of Braun and his associates.
Speaking today to broadcaster Polsat, health minister Izabela Leszczyna said that “unfortunately, Poland, just like other European countries, is not free from parties that are antisemitic, nationalist and populist”.
Last year, after Braun attacked the Hanukkah celebration, a second ceremony was held to show support for the Jewish community and was attended by politicians from across the spectrum, including President Andrzej Duda.
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u/enballz Friedrich Hayek 3d ago
holy shit, that's really fuckin 1930s germany era antisemitism. What the fuck poland?
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u/BubsyFanboy European Union 3d ago
Seeing one of these awful billboard on my family trip felt awful.
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u/Computer_Name 3d ago
When you hear people scream “go back to Poland” at us, they’re telling us to go back to the camps.
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u/bounded_operator European Union 3d ago
The Billboards are the one thing that makes this uniquely bad in Poland, but this kind of antisemitism is all over Europe, especially coupled with Gaza, see for instance the people hunting down Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam, houses getting marked with stars of David in Berlin or Germany's most famous pop-philosopher talking about the Jews being so greedy on a publicly funded show.
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u/HatesPlanes Henry George 2d ago
Germany's most famous pop-philosopher talking about the Jews being so greedy on a publicly funded show.
Who?
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u/grandolon NATO 3d ago edited 2d ago
1930s germany era
Not unique to Germany or the 1930s. Sadly, in every place the Nazis invaded -- including Poland -- they found plenty willing collaborators. To this day it's taboo in Poland to suggest that not all Poles were innocent victims in the holocaust. (Of course, non-Jewish Poles suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis and Soviets. Around three million were murdered)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedwabne_pogrom
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/myth-of-innocent-poles-holocaust-history
Edit: 3 million, not 1 million
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u/greenskinmarch Henry George 2d ago
Of course, non-Jewish Poles suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis and Soviets. Around a million were murdered
I thought it was around 3 million?
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u/grandolon NATO 2d ago
You're right. I was thinking of the 1 million non-Jewish Poles who died in the camps. Another ~2m were killed by other means.
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u/talizorahs NASA 3d ago
That is some vintage antisemitism. The victim complex on these scumbags is fucking hysterical. "YOU'RE TRYING TO ENSLAVE ME, TAKE OVER MY COUNTRY, AND TREAT ME AS SUBHUMAN," they scream as they harass Hanukkah ceremonies for the tiny amount of Jews left in the area after the past century's genocide of them.
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u/Background_Novel_619 Gay Pride 3d ago
From 3.5 million to a few thousand in just a few years. And then they claim we’re oppressing them as if our complete genocide and removal from the country was not enough.
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u/Relative-Contest192 Hannah Arendt 3d ago
Ahh yes the lunatics who think goyim means cattle and not nation. Also can the people who think we need to go back to Poland and these people who want all Jews out of Poland go argue with themselves and leave us alone.
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u/groupbot The ping will always get through 3d ago
Pinged POLAND (subscribe | unsubscribe | history)
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u/MarioTheMojoMan Frederick Douglass 3d ago
Keeping the faith and the lights on with a hostile crowd bearing down outside is actually a pretty solid way to celebrate Hanukkah
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u/CantaloupeLottocracy 3d ago
This is the same parliament that just made Christmas Eve a public holiday so that more people can celebrate it with their families(or at church, or however tf they please), but no, they're clearly anti-Christmas, anti-family🙄
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u/pseudoanon YIMBY 2d ago
Once more, bigots fight against their self-interest. They could have had 8 days instead, if they only did the same for Hanukkah.
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u/iia John von Neumann 3d ago
Eastern Europe not beating the allegations.
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u/credibletemplate 3d ago
Lately the entire Europe is not beating the allegations. Shameless hatred of Jewish people is back
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u/attackofthetominator John Brown 3d ago
“Yeah but we hate Muslims more so we’re actually the best party for Jewish people” -an argument I’ve heard way too many times on arr worldnews
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u/WAGRAMWAGRAM 3d ago
What's sad is that in France there are numerous high-profile Jewish intellectuals/journalists etc... who worse than trending right also tend to see the far-right as the least worse option.
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u/credibletemplate 3d ago
To be fair the far right is absolutely just as bad, just framing themselves as openly hating Jewish people tends to set off small alarms in people's heads so they need to be more subtle about it. Everyone else hating on the Jewish population can frame it as a brave fight against the occupier, far right would end up being labeled as neonazi and that thankfully doesn't win votes.
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u/Ok-Swan1152 3d ago
Some of these high profile intellectuals and journos also express beliefs such as black people being genetically inferior to white people and are openly proud of sexually harassing women.
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u/WAGRAMWAGRAM 3d ago
If by "some" you mean Zemmour, ok
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u/MidnightLimp1 Paul Krugman 3d ago
Perhaps, but Zemmour was polling at 15 percent ahead of the 2022 presidential election at multiple periods, good enough for third place.
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u/Ok-Swan1152 3d ago
I believe he's not the only one?
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u/WAGRAMWAGRAM 3d ago
Zemmour is the most extreme one (the kind to do colonial apology), most of the others (like Finkelkraut I guess) tend to "only" be conservatives and reactionary without being as racist, there's also Meyer Habib who's extremely hardcore, but he's not an intellectual, he was the former MP for the 3rd international constituency
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u/Ok-Swan1152 3d ago
To be fair French leftists seem to be particularly nutty
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u/ReptileCultist European Union 2d ago
Yeah Melenchon for example seems to be more antisemitic than LePen
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u/IllConstruction3450 2d ago
But you might make them feel a little guilty that their grandpa collaborated with the Nazis!
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u/richmeister6666 3d ago
Islamist cranks to the left of me, fascists to the right - here I am. Stuck in the middle with Jew.
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u/Infinite_Fall6284 3d ago
Is islamist extremism not far-right.
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u/greenskinmarch Henry George 2d ago
But they're often in a Baptist-Bootlegger alliance with the Western far left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists
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u/MistakePerfect8485 Audrey Hepburn 3d ago edited 3d ago
Meanwhile, outside parliament, dozens of supporters of Braun – whose Confederation of the Polish Crown (Konfederacja Korony Polskiej) party is part of the broader far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group that sits in parliament – gathered.
Some brought with them fire extinguishers in reference to last year’s incident, in which Braun sought to put out the candles on the hannukiah. In April this year, he was charged with the crime of insulting a religious group – which carries a potential prison sentence – after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity.
However, soon after he was elected to the European Parliament, meaning he once again gained immunity. In October, justice minister Adam Bodnar submitted a request for Braun to have his European immunity lifted. It is still being processed by the European Parliament.
What's with voters electing people after they get caught rioting and being bigots in general?
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u/namey-name-name NASA 3d ago
Can someone make a “I like Hanukkah” “I hope you fucking die” meme out of this?