Poland: MP extinguishes Hanukkah candlesticks with fire extinguisher

2023-12-12 18:50:23

In Poland, a right-wing lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out the lights on a Hanukkah menorah in the parliament building. During the plenary session, representatives of the Jewish community came into the building at the invitation of the President of Parliament and lit the candlestick, as Polish media reported on Tuesday.

The television station TVN24 showed footage of MP Grzegorz Braun from the right-wing extremist Konfederacja taking a fire extinguisher from the wall, turning on the extinguishing jet and directing it at the lit lights of the Hanukkah menorah. There was a scuffle with a representative of the Jewish community. On social media, tumultuous scenes of gun smoke can be seen before Braun leaves the foyer. From the speaker’s platform, the MP then declared that lighting a Hanukkah menorah was an “act of Satanism.”

Parliament President Szymon Holownia then excluded Braun from the meeting and announced that the Presidium would file a criminal complaint. As long as he is President of Parliament, there will be no tolerance for anti-Semitism and racism there. Poland’s designated new prime minister, Donald Tusk, called Braun’s action a disgrace.

The festival of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem following an uprising once morest the Greeks in 164 BC and the “miracle of light” of a lampstand burning for eight days. It lasts until December 15th this year.

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