allowed skinheads to disturb a Chanukah celebration, which is openly celebrated since the collapse of Communism.
Hundreds of skinheads of the right-wing Hungarian Revisionist Movement were seen a day earlier in down town Budapest, as Jewish people prepared to burn candles to observe one of their most precious religious holiday’s.
Although there was no violent confrontation, eye-witnesses said demonstrators shouted "Hungary belongs to us", while others were seen showing fascist symbols.
WORLD WAR TWO
It resembled a scene from World War Two when for the most part Hungary was a close ally of Nazi Germany and about 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust.
"How could this happen, 12 years after the political changes?," wondered Erno Lazarovits, Foreign Relations Director of the Hungarian Federation of Jewish Communities and a Holocaust survivor. "I think I speak for all survivors when I say that this makes me worried," he told BosNewsLife.
"We would never disturb Christmas of the Christians, " he said, his voice trembling. Lazarovits added the skinheads had shown disrespect for Chanukah, which was first celebrated in 164 B.C. when Jewish people got back their Temple in Jerusalem, after revolting against their enemies.
OLIVE OIL
They reportedly discovered one bottle of olive oil to light the candles in the Temple for one day. However the oil is said to have lasted for eight days, an event that became known as "the miracle of Chanukah."
In a statement, the Hungarian National Police apologized to the Jewish community for allowing the skinheads to disturb the Chanukah celebration. The Hungarian News Agency, MTI, quoted Police Chief Laszlo Salgo as saying that an investigation was underway.
Salgo said he wanted to know why "a permit was issued to a right wing revisionist group demanding restoration of Hungary’s pre first world war one territory, to hold a demonstration at the same time and at the same place as the religious ceremony."
US CONCERNED
However Lazarovits accused parties and officials linked to the previous centre right Government of encouraging these nationalistic sentiments. Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration was recently condemned by United States and NATO officials for nationalism and cooperation with an ultra right wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP).
Orban has strongly denied those accusations. Interior Minister Monika Lamperth said at a Chanukah celebration that the current Socialist-led administration is however "planning to take measures against racial and religious discrimination."
She also suggested that a law modification proposal also includes that Holocaust-denial and hatred speech should be punishable. The announcement came as a court prepared to seek a suspended jail sentence and fine for Reformed pastor Lorant Hegedus Jr. on Friday, December 6, for inciting hatred against a community in a perceived anti Semitic article in the Ebreszto paper of MIEP.
