Police arrest neo-Nazi group member
Police arrest neo-Nazi group memberFlash 90

A member of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party has called for an “anti-Zionist” demonstration to be held in Budapest on the eve of the World Jewish Congress General Assembly. 

Lorant Hegedus, a Calvinist priest, pledged that an “Anti-Bolshevik and anti-Zionist people’s gathering” would be held in the Hungarian capital on 4 May, the first day of the WJC annual assembly.

The WJC is convening the gathering of its highest decision-making body, which meets every four years, in Budapest to show solidarity with Hungary’s Jews, who are facing increasing levels of anti-Semitism.

Last month the WJC announced that it would hold its 2013 annual assembly May 4-6 in Budapest to show solidarity with Hungarian Jews, who are facing “exceptionally strong” currents and trends of anti-Semitism.

The body customarily holds its annual congress in the national capital of Jerusalem.

Peter Feldmajer, president of Mazsihisz, the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that, “the Hungarian Jewish leadership condemns the demonstration to be held during the WJC session in Budapest.”

Feldmajer added that the WJC assembly would go ahead as planned.

Hegedus called on the WJC to condemn “the Judeo-Bolshevik, anti-Christian and anti-Hungarian terror, and its Jewish leaders during the years of 1919 and of 1945.” Both years are significant in Hungarian history, characterized by the Hungarian far right as the revenge of the Jews against Hungarians.

The demonstration is being seen by many as revenge for the Hungarian government’s ban of the anti-Semitic ‘Give Gas’ rally, which was planned to coincide with a Holocaust memorial march in Budapest on April 21.

The march “unequivocally refers to the tortuous deaths of more than 400,000 of our compatriots killed in Auschwitz with poisonous gas and is a call to repeat these harrowing deeds,” Mazsihisz said in a statement.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) recently identified Hungary as experiencing the most troublesome racist and anti-Semitic trends in Europe.

“There are extremely worrying signs emanating from Hungary at the moment, where barely a week passes without an attack on minorities or outrageous comments from far-Right politicians,” said EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor. “Unfortunately, red lines keep being crossed and there needs to be an extremely strong reaction, both from the Hungarian government and the European Union to push back against these phenomena.”

The EJC noted that there has been a notable “escalation of Anti-Semitic incitement” in Hungary and a “correlation was observed between the political strengthening of extreme right parties and the high level of Anti-Semitic manifestations including incidents of violence and vandalism.”

The prevalent anti-Semitic trends in the country are most widely attributed to the Jobbik party, which blatantly espouses neo-Nazi and xenophobic principles and beliefs.