it sees as the ineffectiveness of Czech police against "a growing number of neo-Nazi
gatherings" in the Czech Republic, BosNewsLife monitored late Friday, April 29. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem sent a letter to the country’s Interior Ministry saying there have been at least 10 neo-Nazi concerts in the country since January, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) said.
The group has also organized a parliamentary debate on combating new forms of anti-Semitism, scheduled to take place May 26 in the Chamber of Deputies, the news agency reported. "We consider the activity of the Czech police as absolutely insufficient. We want the police not only to monitor these concerts, but to stop them from taking place," ICEJ’s Czech Chairman Mojmir Kallus was quoted as saying.
He said the police offer several reasons for their inability to break up the gatherings. "They tell us first that they don’t know what goes on at these events, so how can they know that any laws are broken? But since we are able to get a young man into the concerts who records anti-Semitic and racist slurs, surely they can do the same and even better," Kallus added."I find it ironic that we seem to know more about what goes on at these concerts than the police."
SALUTE
He reportedly stressed that "the infamous" Hitler salute was given by the audience and performers during a concert in Jablonec v Podjestedi on March 25 that was attended by about 400 neo-Nazis from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia. He said that at a similar concert on April 9 at Hostenice, a band performed a song with the refrain, "I will not give Jews any chance — Bolshevik stench," JTA reported.
Kallus claimed speeches and songs at the concerts clearly violated Czech law because they "supported an ideology aimed at suppressing people’s rights and freedoms." The Czech Republic has an anti-discrimination law that punishes racial hate speech with fines and jail time. "Then the police say they can’t do anything because the concerts are private gatherings. Now that’s just ridiculous," Kallus told JTA.
Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, has reportedly said that laws were sufficient and questioned police competence. "These events would never occur to such an extent in Germany. The police would shut them down," JTA quoted him as saying.
"POWERLESS"
But a spokeswoman for the state police, Blanka Kosinova, suggested the police are powerless against the growing number of neo-Nazi gatherings. "We only have the power to intervene if there is a suspicion there has been a crime committed," she explained JTA.
Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, told JTA that he is happy that "it’s not always us Jews speaking out against anti-Semitism. We love ICEJ." Earlier this week in nearby Hungary, the main churches and officials from the Jewish community also agreed to cooperate in the fight against anti-Semitism in the country and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe.
An estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust during World War Two when Hungary was a close ally of Nazi Germany.
(With JTA, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Czech Repiblic and Hungary).
