|
World Jewish News
Jewish Community Building Vandalized in Lithuania
20.01.2009
As reported by Lithuanian news agencies, swastika and the anti-Semitic slogan "Palestine. Kill Jews" were daubed on a Jewish community building in Klaipeda.
The building has been defiled several times before. On August 26, 2008, the fence around the community building was also smeared with swastikas and the Nazi slogan "Juden Raus" ("Jews - out!"). On September 25, a day after the mournful day in Lithuania - the 65th anniversary of the destruction of the Vilnius ghetto, the flag was torn down from the wall of the building and taken away. In Klaipeda, local neo-Nazis have repeatedly celebrated the birthday of Hitler by hanging Nazi flags in the most remarkable places in the city.
"This is not the first time," said in a press statement Simonas Gurevicius, executive director of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. "So where are we going? How much longer will we allow provocateurs to pit the Lithuanian and Jewish people against one another, to violate the basics of trust and tolerance with impunity? Such manifestations can not be treated with indifference. Public condemn and common struggle for human values - are the most appropriate punishment for instigators."
It is of note that in July 2008, it was legally forbidden in Lithuania to use the swastika and the hammer and sickle symbols in public space.
|
|
