As
Hungary is frequently in the spotlight of international governmental and
non-governmental organisations, it is time to put perceptions aside and to give
a clear overview of antisemitic incidents in Hungary.
The Federation for Jewish
Communities in Hungary’s (MAZSIHISZ) antisemitism monitoring team publishes
reports twice a year in which they summarize all antisemitic incidents they
have recorded. The team uses five categories to sort the incidents: physical
assaults, threats, vandalism, political antisemitism and antisemitic hate
speech. During the first six months of 2013 (from 1st of January till 30th of
June), 54 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Hungary by our organisation.
Here it must be noted that during that period the World Jewish Congress held
its plenary assembly in Budapest, which led to several antisemitic incidents.
During
the first six months of 2014, we recorded 33 incidents. It seems there has been
a significant reduction in the number of incidents but the fact that the Jewish
World Congress’ plenary assembly took place at the same time in the previous
year must be taken into account as a mitigating factor.
As
from July 2014, when the conflict broke out in the Middle East (Operation
Protective Edge was launched by Israeli Defense Forces against Hamas in the
Gaza strip), the number of antisemitic incidents started to increase
significantly. During the conflict in the Middle East we recorded the
desecration of a Holocaust Monument, graffiti on a Star of David in front of
the main synagogue of Budapest and probably the most despicable act: during the
renovation of a kindergarten initiated by the schoolchildren’s parents, a
volunteer dad wrote ‘FILTHY JEWS’ on the wall of the kindergarten and then
posted the photo on his own Facebook page.
You can see the
statistics of the first six months of 2014 below.
I
think everybody agrees that the most dangerous type of antisemitic incidents
are the violent ones. During the period January to June 2014, four violent
incidents were reported. One of them was against journalists while they were
taking pictures of a neo-Nazi event called Day of Honour. Day of Honour is an
international neo-Nazi meeting where participants from several European
countries gather in Budapest every year to commemorate the day when German and
Hungarian forces tried to break out of the castle of Buda against the USSR army
in 1945. During the march initiators of the event pushed them hard, forced them
to leave and called them filthy Jews; they also said: ‘No need for Jews here’.
During
the spring of 2014, a young Jewish man was walking in Budapest with a Kippah on
his head and was beaten up by an unknown perpetrator who told him he deserved
it because he dared to walk in the street with his Kippah on. Other incidents
included radical youngsters attacking a Jewish group and a Jewish individual in
the same night.
Experts
are also very concerned about political antisemitism. In the period from
January to June 2014, Hungary held its national and European parliamentary
elections. Hungary has one of the largest far-right parties in Europe called
Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary. In the parliamentary elections they got
over 20% of the votes which is a significant increase compared to the last
parliamentary elections (2010), when they obtained less than 17%.
Politicians
from this party have made a significant amount of antisemitic statements. For
example, a Jobbik member of Parliament, Márton Gyöngyösi, in 2012 called for
the establishment of a list of Jewish citizens of Hungary, although he later
explained he actually meant Hungarian-Israeli dual citizens. Another MP of
Jobbik, Zsolt Baráth, in 2012 commemorated in the national Parliament a blood
libel trial that took place in the 19th century, when the Jewish community of
Tiszaeszlár was wrongly accused of the kidnapping and murder of a Christian
girl.
The
Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary is monitoring antisemitism since
2012. During that period the number of antisemitic incidents has been quite
constant. The change of political climate a few years ago has changed the
quality of the public discourse. Referring to research on antisemitic hate
speech, András Kovács, a professor and an antisemitism expert at the Central
European University, said there are not more antisemites in Hungary but because
of the presence of Jobbik they express their antisemitic attitudes more boldly.
On the one hand, the Jewish community of Hungary is addressing the rise of antisemitism
in the past few years, but on the other hand there is a vital Jewish life in
Hungary, which is very strong and developing despite antisemitism.
