a far-right MP empties a fire extinguisher onto a menorah, a symbol of Judaism

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This act was immediately condemned by the majority of Polish parliamentary groups.

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Grzegorz Braun, a member of the far-right Confederation party, uses a fire extinguisher to extinguish the candles of a lit menorah during the Hannukah celebration at the Parliament, in Warsaw, Poland, December 12, 2023. (BEATA ZAWRZEL/ NURPHOTO / AFP)

Polish far-right MP Grzegorz Braun emptied a fire extinguisher on a menorah, a candlestick symbol of Judaism, Tuesday, December 12, within the Diet, the Polish lower house. “An unacceptable thing happened. It’s a shame”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk immediately declared. The president of the Diet excluded the far-right MP from a parliamentary meeting and announced that he had received maximum financial sanctions. Furthermore, a complaint against the latter will be filed with the courts, he added.

The menorah was lit in Parliament on the occasion of the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (Festival of Lights), in the presence of Jewish personalities. In video images published in the Polish media, we see Grzegorz Braun dousing the menorah and filling a hall of parliament with a cloud of fire extinguisher foam. In May, Grzegorz Braun attacked Polish-Canadian Holocaust historian Jan Grabowski, a professor at the University of Ottawa, with a microphone during a conference in Warsaw.


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