A far-right Polish lawmaker on Tuesday used a hearth extinguisher to place out a Hanukkah menorah positioned within the parliament foyer, a stunt that noticed him ordered out of the meeting by the speaker of the decrease chamber.
”This could have by no means occurred,” Szymon Holownia informed reporters after expelling the lawmaker, Grzegorz Braun, to depart the plenary, including that he would name for an investigation into the incident.
The ceremony for lighting the nine-branched candelabrum was held within the Polish parliament to have a good time the Jewish Competition of Lights, and was attended by rabbis and a Jewish music band.
Slawomir Kaminski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl/REUTERS
Poland’s TVN24 confirmed video of Braun utilizing a crimson fireplace extinguisher to douse the candle, filling the world with smoke and fog from the gadget. The parliamentary proceedings had been suspended.
”This could have by no means occurred,” Holownia informed reporters after he ordered Braun to depart the session, including that he would name for an investigation into the lawmaker’s actions.
Poland’s newly elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk referred to as it a shame and stated such a factor ought to by no means be repeated. Tusk, a pro-European Union centrist, was elected on Monday, marking a reversal for Poland after years of conservative management. Tusk gave his inaugural speech to parliament Tuesday earlier than Braun acted out.
Braun, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation celebration, has beforehand claimed that there is a plot to show Poland right into a ”Jewish state.”
Antisemitism has been on the rise in Europe and the U.S. amid the struggle between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented terror assault on Oct. 7.
”It could possibly’t occur once more, it is a shame,” Tusk stated as he waited for the parliament to approve his new pro-EU authorities, a vote that was delayed amid the chaos triggered by the incident, which was condemned by all events aside from Braun’s Confederation.
”SHAME. A Polish Parliament member simply did this. Couple of minutes after we celebrated Hanukkah there,” Israel’s ambassador to Poland Yacov Livne stated on social media, posting a video of the stunt.