12/12/2023 7:45 pm (current 12/12/2023 7:45 pm)
Right-wing extremist Grzegorz Braun is reported ©APA/TVN24
In Poland, a right-wing lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to turn off the lights on a Hanukkah menorah in the parliament building. During the plenary session, representatives of the Jewish community entered the building at the invitation of the President of Parliament and lit the candlestick, as reported in the Polish press on Tuesday.
Television station TVN24 showed footage of deputy Grzegorz Braun, from the right-wing extremist Konfederacja, grabbing 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 fight with a representative of the Jewish community. On social media, tumultuous scenes of gun smoke could be seen before Braun left the lobby. From the speaker's platform, the MP then declared that lighting a Hanukkah menorah was an “act of Satanism.”
Parliament Speaker 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 in that country. Poland's new prime minister-designate, Donald Tusk, called Braun's action a disgrace.
The festival of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem following a revolt against the Greeks in 164 BC and the “miracle of light” of a candelabrum burning for eight days. It runs until December 15th this year.