English Section

Hanukkah candlestick vandalised in Poland's Wrocław: mayor

15.12.2023 14:00
A group of unidentified individuals on Thursday destroyed a Hanukkah candlestick in Wrocław, southwestern Poland, the city's mayor has said, indicating that the vandalism could have been a copycat act inspired by an earlier anti-Jewish incident in the nation's parliament.
Audio
Photo:
Photo:Wrocław City Hall/pap.pl

Jacek Sutryk shared the news via Facebook on Friday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

The mayor said that "five masked bandits" vandalised a Hanukkah candlestick placed on Oławska Street in Wrocław on Thursday night.

The group knocked over the nine-arm candlestick and also burnt a flag of Israel, Sutryk added.

He condemned the incident, saying that "there is no place for racism, xenophobia and antisemitism" in his city.

Officials have reported the incident to the police, who have launched an investigation, the PAP news agency reported.

The US ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, took to the X social media platform to "condemn this act of antisemitic hatred."

The act of vandalism in Wrocław came after an antisemitic incident in the Polish parliament earlier this week. 

On Tuesday, far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun took a fire extinguisher and sprayed powder to put out Hanukkah candles placed in the lobby of the parliament, according to news reports at the time.

The iconoclastic MP with the Confederation party then took to the parliamentary podium where he described the Hanukkah candles as "Satanic" and declared that he was restoring "normality."

Braun was excluded from the Sejm lower-house sitting and received a maximum fine; the Sejm Office later referred him to prosecutors over the incident, the PAP news agency reported. 

On Wednesday, the Confederation party suspended Braun from his duties as a member of the parliamentary group and banned him from speaking in the house, reporters were told.

On Thursday, President Andrzej Duda and senior lawmakers attended a ceremony in parliament to relight Hanukkah candles after they were extinguished by Braun two days earlier.

On Friday, Justice Minister Adam Bodnar told private broadcaster TVN24 that prosecutors would ask the lower chamber of the Polish legislature to lift Braun's parliamentary immunity.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, wroclaw.pl

Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.