World Jewish News
Hungarian Jewish graves vandalised in latest anti-Semitic incident
23.07.2012, Anti-Semitism The Hungarian Jewish community was left reeling Sunday by reports of vandalism in a Jewish cemetery where 57 graves were destroyed.
The incident which took place in Kaspovar, about 200 kilometres south of the capital Budapest, is currently being investigated by local police.
According to the Hungarian MTI news agency, Kaspovar Mayor Karoly Szita said he was “upset and disgusted” by the attack, which Hungarian Jewish representatives claim was racially-motivated.
Monika Lamperth, a member of the Hungarian Socialist Party slammed the desecration and expressed hope that responsible parties would soon be caught.
The report comes less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “concern” about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Hungary, in a meeting in Jerusalem with Hungarian President Janos Ader.
According to a statement released by his office following a meeting of the two leaders on Tuesday, Netanyahu said: “Israel and the Jewish world is very anxious about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Hungary, “adding that “it is of the utmost importance to tackle symptoms of this dangerous phenomenon, before it spreads”.
The Israeli Premier’s words of warning followed a spate of reports of anti-Jewish incidents in the EU member state, in the form of a series of state-sponsored commemorations of controversial Hungarian wartime leader and Nazi collaborator Miklos Horthy.
In June, Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel returned Hungary's highest honour, which he had received in 2004, accusing the authorities of "encouraging the whitewashing of tragic and criminal episodes in Hungary's past" by honoured disgraced WWII leaders.
The meeting with the Hungarian president itself was hastily arranged after an initial invitation to Hungarian parliamentary speaker Laslo Kover was rescinded after he attended a ceremony to honour pro-Nazi Hungarian writer Jozsef Nyiro.
The state visit was designed to coincide with an official Israeli parliamentary event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Swedish diplomat and Righteous Gentile Raoul Wallenberg, who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
An estimated 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and about 80,000 of the country's current 10 million-strong population are Jewish.
EJP
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