Israel concerned over rise of far right in Hungary, says ambassador

Israel's relations with Hungary are overall excellent but the strengthening of the far right in the country is a concern, the Israeli Ambassador told MTI on Thursday, ahead of the 62nd anniversary of the State of Israel on May 14.

"Israel continues to remain a close friend of Hungary as their peoples share many values," said Aliza Bin-Noun, adding that Jewish communities play an important role in Hungarian society.

"Israel and its public, especially Holocaust survivors, are at the same time paying increased attention to anti-Semitism in Hungary and are particularly concerned about the rise of the far-right," she said.

The ambassador expressed hope that the incoming government will appropriately tackle a situation in which, she noted, a far right force, the Jobbik party, has gained seats in Parliament.

"A party which encompasses anti-Semitism in its ideology and is driven by intolerance or racism must be dealt with society itself. This issue is not about Jews or Israel but about Hungarian society as a whole," the ambassador said.

Jobbik won for the first time 47 out of 386 mandates in Hungary's Parliament.

Politics Hu

Politician: Jews behind 9/11 and Holocaust (Sweden)

The Centre Party has promised to take action following revelations that one of its candidates for a parliamentary seat believes Jews lay behind the 9/11 terror attacks and the Holocaust.
Conspiracy theories surrounding an array of global events have flourished for years on the website of Ove Svidén, 73, according to a report on public broadcaster SVT’s news show Rapport.

“Who won the Second World War? The Jews! They got a state. A little remnant of a people gets a country. It’s not a coincidence,” Svidén told Rapport.

The politician also tied Jews to the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. Writing on his website, Svidén describes how the construction of the World Trade Centre was a project dear to the heart of banking mogul David Rockefeller. But in a bid to “kill his darlings”, the ageing patriarch had the iconic twin towers destroyed, the Centre Party candidate argues.

“As a Swede it’s hard to understand the Jewish belief that a victim is necessary if anything is to be gained. But for David Rockefeller this could serve as a diversion and alibi for the person who benefited most from the events of September 9th [sic] 2001,” he writes.

As a self-styled globalist, who puts the interests of the world above those of individual nations, David Rockefeller is routinely labelled by conspiracy theorists as a would-be proponent of a totalitarian world government.
Ove Svidén is a very marginal candidate for a seat in parliament at the September general election, with his name appearing towards the bottom of the Centre Party’s ballot list.

Although his website was largely ignored for years, the party’s Stockholm chairman Per Ankersjö has now vowed to take swift action. Ankersjö said he was shocked by some of the content on the site and pledged to put an immediate stop to the printing of ballots that included Svidén’s name.

“The passages I have seen are so extreme that we’re going to have to examine whether he can stay [on the ballot slip]. I’m going to propose that we remove him. In my view he has breached our guidelines to such an extent that he can’t stay,” Ankersjö told Rapport.

The Centre Party is a junior partner in Sweden's four-party centre-right ruling coalition.

The Local Sweden

Geert Wilders, the ultra-right firebrand, campaigns to be Holland's prime minister

Radical anti-Islamic politics are under the microscope as a hero of the far right tries to capitalise on cultural divisions
In the street market outside Almere's glass-fronted Stadhuis – the council offices – stalls are selling clothes and toys, typical Dutch sausages and cuts of glistening ham. At another stall, occasional shoppers inspect piles of Islamic headscarves and ankle-length gowns. But if many of the councillors in the Stadhuis have their way, that stall will not be doing a roaring trade for much longer.

The party that won most seats in the municipal elections in Almere earlier this year – although it failed to form a governing coalition – would like to ban the wearing of headscarves in public buildings such as the Stadhuis, as well as banning the construction of new mosques. That party is the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), of Geert Wilders, the populist firebrand behind the anti-Islamic film Fitna, who has accused Muslims of trying to "colonise" his country.

Three months ago, almost a quarter of Almere's voters backed the PVV and Wilders was being tipped as a possible prime minister in forthcoming elections on 9 June. "Today Almere and The Hague," said Wilders –"tomorrow the whole of the Netherlands. This is our springboard for success."

His poll fortunes may have diminished somewhat since then, as the country's mainstream parties have toughened up their own acts on immigration. But the blond-mulleted Islamophobe may yet be credited with transforming how Holland does its politics.
The urgent question in Almere – and throughout the rest of the Netherlands – today is how significant the "Wilders moment" really was in a country better known for consensual deliberation than vituperative and divisive debate. On 9 June, will Almere prove to be a springboard to high office for one of the more radical politicians in the heart of Europe?

Outside the Stadhuis, the Islamic stallholder, a bearded Muslim in early middle age, does not seem unduly bothered by local support for the PVV. "People are very nice here," he says while selling his wares. "I've never had any problems here with anyone. In other places …yes. And there is the PVV," he concedes, "but what they say, their ideas, are really about something else."

About what then? Analysts have suggested that the PVV's recent rise was an expression of disillusionment from a population fed up with the mainstream parties.
Certainly, if Almere has become the symbol – along with The Hague – of the rise of the PVV and Geert Wilders, it is a very reluctant one. There is embarrassment at drawing unwelcome attention to "tolerant" Holland as Belgium passes its own headscarf prohibition and France moves in a similar direction. Almere does not want to be seen as in the vanguard of Europe's culture wars. Its occupants are often unwilling to talk about the coming elections, and no one here seems to have voted PVV.

Half an hour by train from Amsterdam, formidably modern Almere sits on the flat plain of the Flevoland polder –a tract of land enclosed by dykes bordering the waters of the Markermeer. Built as an overspill city for Amsterdam's growing population, the first house in this city of more than 170,000 was finished in 1976.

Its social ills are not the obvious ones of poverty and unemployment. As one resident tartly points out "We're much better off than Britain." Its residents, framed by the backdrop of the familiar shops in the city centre mall – C&A, Mango, Bodyshop and Footlocker – are what make Almere different, attracting Wilders in the first place.
Almere is one of the most multicultural cities in Holland – perhaps in Europe – hosting 181 nationalities. Just 39% of those living in the city are native Dutch, half born in Amsterdam, who were attracted by the idea of a quiet life in the midst of the green polder. The rest come from Suriname, Turkey, Morocco and Vietnam attracted by the low-cost housing. It is this obvious division that Wilders has sought to exploit.

Joop Hoogendorn, 77, is a retired sports administrator who moved to Almere six years ago from the ancient walled town of Naarden, attracted by the cheaper prices for retirement flats. Ahead of the election, security is his major concern: "Safety on the streets. We have people in the city, young people of a Moroccan background, who rob people of their telephones. And health. It is very expensive here."

At first it seems likely that Hoogendorn is a supporter of Wilders' PVV with its emphasis on "safety", its backing for civic security patrols and antagonism to the country's Muslims. But he is shocked: "I wouldn't vote for the PVV. They are discriminatory even if they are promoting city guards. My party is the [Conservative] Liberal Party. The PVV is aggressive in the way it talks. And it offers no alternatives."

There is another mystery, as author and academic Hans Moors, who has studied Almere explains. Not only is it Holland's safest city but the perception of the threat of crime from young Moroccan men – which has risen since the murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 by 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan Mohammed Bouyeri – is also a false construct. The Moroccan population in Almere is tiny.

"What happened at the last [municipal] elections was that Wilders was very successful in presenting a safety narrative of fear of crime," says Moors. "The mayor here said, 'Look, we are the safest city. It has been proven by scientific means.' And Wilders said, 'Look, here's another mayor who wants to ignore your fears'."

Moors solves the puzzle of the missing PVV voters by explaining that many of those who voted for the party are "anxious" about being identified with it, not least because, despite his claims that his party is conventionally right wing, Wilders has visibly attracted neo-fascists as supporters. In doing so he has imported a brash new rhetorical style, quickly reactive to events, that has shaken up Dutch politics.

"Almere is a passport out of Dutch politics," says Moors. "Holland isn't used to populist and discourse-driven politics." He is uncertain whether Wilders has the traction to break through in June, despite what happened in Almere. If he has changed anything, Moors believes, it will be the style in which politics is done in Holland, not the essential power relationships between parties.

It is a view shared by Mackiel Kuppenol, a 42-year-old software engineer who is walking with his wife on a bank holiday that has turned Almere into a windswept ghost town. "This is all about emotions going up and down," he says his finger describing a curve that suggests that the PVV has peaked.

"It is a protest against the mainstream political parties. I mean… you've been here? You've counted the women with headscarves in the street at any time? You can do it on one hand."

The Guardian

Attacks on Asians lead to racial tension in California (USA)

In January, an 83-year-old neighbor, also a Chinese immigrant, was beaten into a coma. Days after he died in March, Mrs. Cheng, 53, was attacked and pushed off a public-transit platform, coming to minutes later with front teeth knocked out and her mouth full of blood.

Both attacks happened within a block of her house. Now Mrs. Cheng avoids going out, gets rides to work and keeps her two daughters close to home. She doesn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation, but she doesn't want too much to be made of what happened to her, either. She repeatedly said through a translator that she just wants everyone to live in peace.

Still, such attacks and the death of a Chinese immigrant from San Francisco who was assaulted during a visit to Oakland have focused the anger of Asian-Americans here, pushing them to vent in emotional rallies their long-simmering perception that they are targets of racially motivated violence. In all cases, the perpetrators were Black teenagers, police said.
"This just sent them over the top. This is an activist city, but this isn't an activist population at all," said Chia-Chi Li, one of the organizers of a rally that drew hundreds of mostly older Chinese-Americans to the steps of San Francisco City Hall bearing signs saying, "Asians are not punching bags," and "Stop attacking the elders and the vulnerable."

In this bastion of diversity and tolerance, the tension between two of its minorities has become painful.
Although both groups have suffered discrimination over the decades, the African-American community has been declining here faster than in any other major city, while the Asian-American community has been growing, partly due to immigration.

Now almost one in three San Franciscans is of Asian descent, and many have moved into affordable, historically Black neighborhoods.
Street violence in these neighborhoods is not new, say people in the Black community. They've suffered it for years. It just never drew much attention, they said.

But seeing this violence serve as a wedge dividing two ethnic minorities that have much more to gain from working together is particularly hard, said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the district where Mrs. Cheng lives.
"It is so sad - in a wealthy city, in this city of St. Francis that harbors everyone, to see that our children are in such distress, our communities are in such distress," said Maxwell, who is African-American.

Maxwell emphasized race was not a factor in the attacks - the problem was the violence inflicted on a neighborhood.
"These kids need help. They are perpetrating violence against all of us," she said. "How are we going to protect each other and be responsible for each other?"

Police Chief George Gascon has played down the role of race in the attacks and pointed to statistics to show Asian-Americans are not disproportionately targeted in street crimes in San Francisco.

Asian-Americans make up 30 percent of the city's population, and account for 19 percent of the victims, Gason said. African-Americans are 7 percent of the population but make up 21 percent of victims.

These are crimes of opportunity, agreed Greg Suhr, police captain of the Bayview district where Mrs. Cheng lives. Victims tend to be vulnerable - the elderly, the young, women, "whoever's easiest."

Mrs. Cheng is about 4 feet 10 inches tall, he said. One of her assailants, a 15-year-old who was arrested and charged with felony assault, is 6 feet tall.
Thirty-two officers have been reassigned to foot patrol to reduce violence in Mrs. Cheng's neighborhood and other areas where assaults have occurred.

The department opened drop-in centers where Chinese-Americans can find officers who speak their language and who will take reports of crimes and offer information.

These measures were welcomed by Asians and Blacks alike. The announcement led to some frustration on the part of Black residents, however, who questioned the police chief at a community town hall on Wednesday about why such measures weren't taken when African-Americans were the victims.

Some of the violence suffered by Asian-Americans in San Francisco comes from the fact they are moving into neighborhoods that have crime, said Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco and head of the city's NAACP chapter.

"Without diminishing the seriousness of what happened to the Asian seniors - this has been happening to African-American seniors for a long time," Brown said. "If you move into a community where there is violence, you will be a victim."

In Mrs. Cheng's family, she says her elderly mother, her 13-year-old daughter, her husband, her brother and her sister have been mugged over the past 10 years.
Racism is not a word thrown around carelessly in this politically correct city. Accusations of that sort are hard for Mrs. Cheng to square with the smiles she trades with her African-American neighbors of 20 years, or with her teenage daughter's Black friends, who walk her home to keep her safe.

When Asian-Americans moved into Black neighborhoods like Mrs. Cheng's, it may have created tensions that were exacerbated by economic stresses and deep language and cultural barriers, experts say.

"From the African-American community's perspective, they feel like they're being invaded by outsiders, and they want to defend their own turf," said Edward Chang, a University of California-Irvine, professor who has studied race relations. "It invites a sense of resentment."

The incidents have led community organizations to develop a plan, as summer approaches, to involve as many kids as possible in jobs, programs and community organizations.
San Francisco can't arrest its way out of this, said Joe Marshall, president of the San Francisco Police Commission.

"You have kids that are hurt, who don't have adult guidance. said Marshall, who is African-American and directs Omega Boys Club, an organization that steers teenagers away from street violence. "They take that out on everybody. If you lock them up, they get out, do the same thing."

Zhirui Wang - whose husband, Tian Sheng Yu, died in April - is quietly calling for an end to violence.

The San Francisco painter and contractor hit his head on the sidewalk after being punched in broad daylight in Oakland. Two 18-year-olds were arrested with help from numerous witnesses, who were outraged by the attack.

"Everyone is asking what about justice? To the Yu family, it is simple," she said through a translator. "True justice is when there will be no more violence."

AZ Central

BNP husband avoids jail after growing cannabis (UK)

THE husband of BNP city councillor Melanie Baddeley and his nephew have avoided being sent to prison after admitting growing cannabis in rooms concealed in a lock-up garage.

Four mature and 20 young plants were found by police executing a search warrant at the premises at the back of Park Avenue, Wolstanton.
The street value of the potential yield of the drugs grown by Clifford Mark Baddeley and Simon Peters was estimated to be between £5,540 and £23,740.

Yesterday North Staffordshire Magistrates' Court heard that when officers went to the lock-up they noticed a strong smell of the Class B drug.
Lynn Warrington, prosecuting, told the court: "During the search officers found a door inside the lock-up cleverly concealed behind a bookcase.

"When the door was opened they discovered three rooms, including a growing room and a drying room.

"Also there were fans, filters, plant food and transformers."

The premises had been used originally by Baddeley to fix washing machines to sell on, but that came to an end following a burglary there.

Baddeley told police both he and Peters liked to smoke cannabis but had recently been receiving poor quality drugs.
Both defendants told officers that they never intended to sell any of the drugs.

Baddeley, aged 49, of Holehouse Road, Abbey Hulton, and Peters, aged 36, of Aegean Close, Trentham, both pleaded guilty to producing four mature and 20 young plants between November 1 last year and January 21.
They were both given a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months, with a six month curfew order from 9pm to 6am. Magistrates ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the plants and equipment and told each defendant to pay £85 costs.

Andrew Bennett, defending both men, said: "The defendants are uncle and nephew.

"They grew cannabis for their own use. Baddeley had arthritis, he could not work and used the drug for pain relief."
Mr Bennett said as a result of this matter and a previous conviction of cultivating cannabis in 2002 his client had now stopped taking cannabis and was being prescribed pain relief.

Mr Bennett added: "He (Baddeley) said the case was of concern to him because his wife was a parliamentary candidate. Peters used the drug primarily as a relaxant. They both now wish to move on without it."
After the hearing Baddeley's wife, BNP city councillor Melanie - who contested the Stoke North seat - in the General Election, told The Sentinel she had no comment to make.

this is Staffordshire

BELARUS POLICE BREAK UP GAY PRIDE MARCH (Belarus)

Belarussian police on Saturday broke up a gay and lesbian pride demonstration by about 20 participants who defied an official ban to gather on a side street in central Minsk and march with bright rainbow flags. Some carried handwritten signs saying, "Today they ban gays, tomorrow they will ban you," in a short-lived protest that was the first of its kind organized by the Russian and Belarussian Slavic Pride rights group in the capital. Police wearing black berets and armed with batons moved in after the protesters advanced about 300 meters down the street. They tore away the flags and hauled off the marchers, some of whom had traveled from Russia for the event. "The police reaction was completely disproportionate to the threat which they thought the protesters posed," Russian activist Nikolai Alekseev told Reuters. "There were 20 people there, behaving peacefully, there were no scuffles and there was no basis for such a rough operation by the authorities." Between 5 and 10 of the parade participants were arrested, a Reuters reporter present at the event observed. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is under Western pressure to enact political reforms and encourage broader civil rights in his country, which has seen ties with traditional ally Russian worsen recently. Homosexuality was decriminalized in the early 1990s; but as in Russia there is little official tolerance of any public show and gay bars and other meeting places tend to be cautiously discreet. Rights group Amnesty International issued a statement before the protest urging Minsk authorities to allow it to take place. "The Belarusian authorities must demonstrate greater commitment to their human rights obligations, which clearly require the authorization of such events," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's expert on discrimination in Europe. "The authorities' refusal constitutes a blatant disregard for equality and the full respect of human rights in Belarus."

Reuters

35,000 JOIN GAY PRIDE PARADE IN BRUSSELS (Belgium)

Tens of thousands of people joined a Gay Pride march in Brussels on Saturday, calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians in Europe. Some 35,OOO people marched through the streets of the historic centre of the Belgian capital, according to organisers cited by the Belga news agency. The protesters addressed their calls for equality to the European Union's new permanent president Herman Van Rompuy and to their country, as Belgium is to take over the rotating EU presidency in July. They are demanding swift adoption of an anti-discrimination EU directive currently under discussion. Some protesters also spoke up for defending the rights of homosexuals and lesbians in other parts of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East. With Belgian voters set to go to the polls to elect an new parliament on June 13, several political groups also took part in the Gay Pride event.


AFP

FIDESZ SAYS CONTROVERSY OVER ATTIRE SHOULD NOT DOMINATE IN PARLIAMENT (Hungary)

Debates about the controversy created by the radical nationalist Jobbik leader's attire at the inaugural session of parliament should not be allowed to dominate political discussions, governing Fidesz party spokesman Peter Szijjarto said on Saturday. The spokesman was asked whether the Fidesz-Christian Democratic party alliance would vote in support of suspending Vona's immunity because the MP wore a garment symbolic of Jobbik's banned paramilitary arm, the Hungarian Guard. Szijjarto called it narrow-minded and harmful that "many tried to divert the assessment of the revolutionary parliament's first session to the issue of a vest." Vona wore a white shirt and a black vest underneath his suit to the parliamentary session and took off his suit during the recital of vows.


MTI

POLISH POLICE DETAIN 5 FOOTBALL FANS FOR UNFURLING LARGE ANTI-SEMITIC BANNER AT MATCH

Polish police said Friday that they have detained five football fans suspected of displaying large anti-Semitic banners at a match in southern Poland last weekend, while the country's soccer federation penalized the soccer club. The banners were unfurled by fans of Resovia Rzeszow during a match Saturday against local rival Stala Rzeszow. One depicted a caricatured man with a large hooked nose wearing a striped yarmulke, a Jewish skullcap, in the blue-and-white colours of the opposing team. Those are also the colours of the Israeli flag and the skullcap's pattern evoked the striped prison garb worn by some prisoners at Auschwitz. A second large banner read: "Death to the Hooked Noses." Polish media reported that ahead of the game, fans marched through the city with a banner that said "The Aryan hordes are coming." Police say in a statement that they detained five Rzeszow residents and charged two of them under a law banning public incitement against ethnic or religious groups. Poland's football federation also banned Resovia Rzeszow fans from attending the team's games through the end of the season. The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. group that fights anti-Semitism, said it welcomed both the arrests and the punitive measure taken by the football federation. Earlier in the week, the group condemned the incident, saying it was especially troubling given that only 700 of the 15,000 Jews who lived in Rzeszow before World War II survived the death camps that Nazi Germany set up on Polish soil. "Jews were starved and executed in Rzeszow's ghetto, which was later transformed into a concentration camp for the region," the group said. "Some were sent to nearby death camps, while others were shot in the forest. Calling for death to Jews on the same spot cannot go unpunished."


the Canadian press

GOV'T CONDEMNATION OF JEWISH CEMETERY VANDALISM (Greece)

The Greek government on Saturday issued a stern condemnation of the incidents of vandalism and desecration at Thessaloniki's Jewish cemetery, which occurred in the early morning hours of Friday or late Thursday evening. Three suspects, two men and a woman, 21, 18 and 17, were arrested as suspects in the incident northern port city. "The government unequivocally condemns the vandalisms at the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki. Such instances of racism and hate have no place whatever in Greek society, which stands opposed to such acts of violence and chauvinism. The responsible authorities will do whatever is necessary so that the perpetrators of these acts are led, as soon as possible, before justice," government spokesman George Petalotis underlined. According to reports, the trio was picked up by a police patrol after being spotted acting suspiciously outside the cemetery. A knife was found in the possession of one of the suspects, and according to police, the likelihood of their being associated with extremist groups is being investigated. Anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed on gravestones and on the cemetery's wall, while a can with flammable liquid was found inside the cemetery but there were no signs of arson, police said. Earlier, the Central Jewish Council of Greece (KIS) and the Jewish community of Thessaloniki condemned the desecration of the northern port city's Jewish cemetery. "Three suspects have been questioned by police, and we are convinced that the state will condemn this heinous act and take all necessary measures to bring the culprits to justice. Phenomena of anti-Semitism and similar views must be eradicated, guaranteeing the people's right to exercise their religious beliefs," according to a statement issued by the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki.


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