A far-right lawmaker in the Polish parliament extinguished candles on a menorah that were lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Tuesday, creating disruption and scandal as a new pro-EU government was beginning its work.
All major political forces quickly denounced the unprecedented incident by Grzegorz Braun, one of the most controversial lawmakers in parliament, and said there would be no tolerance for antisemitic and xenophobic behaviour in the parliament.
Mr Braun, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation party, has in the past falsely claimed that there is a plot to turn Poland into a “Jewish state” and has called for homosexuality to be criminalised.
The speaker of the parliament, Szymon Holownia, called the act “absolutely scandalous” and excluded Mr Braun from the day’s parliamentary session, expressing hopes that “he will not return soon”.
He said he was reporting him to prosecutors.
The parliament also slapped the highest possible financial penalty on Mr Braun, forcing him to lose half of three months of his salary and per diems for half a year.
“Poland is home to all religions,” Mr Holownia said.
According to video footage of the incident, Mr Braun grabbed a red fire extinguisher and put out candles on the menorah.
A cloud of smoke, haze and white powder filled the area.
Rabbi Shalom Ber Stambler, who led the Hanukkah ceremony as he has done for 17 years, told The Associated Press the celebration took place peacefully and had just ended when suddenly chaos broke out and he became aware that Mr Braun was putting out the candles on the sixth night of the week-long festival.
People begged him to stop and a woman, a member of the Jewish community, tried to stop Mr Braun.
Kickback smoke from the extinguisher went into her face and she needed medical attention afterward.
Every year, members of the Jewish community attend the menorah lightning in the parliament.
“He was doing it in a very brutal way,” Rabbi Stambler added, speaking of Mr Braun.
The incident disrupted an important day in Poland’s parliament, when the newly elected prime minister Donald Tusk gave his inaugural speech.
Mr Tusk pledged in his speech that his government would demand that the Western world keep up its help for Ukraine and that it would be a stable ally to the United States and Nato.
He strongly condemned the antisemitic incident saying: “This is unacceptable, this must never happen again. This is a disgrace.”
The incident delayed a vote of confidence in his government, and even the parliamentary group of Mr Braun’s party condemned his behaviour.
Rabbi Stambler, a rabbi for the Chabad community, said that if felt like Mr Braun wanted to disrupt a day when many people were happy after Tusk was elected and gave his inaugural speech to parliament.
“Somebody was trying to destroy it,” Stambler said. “And I think the impact is the opposite. Now there will be even more awareness of how much tolerance is needed, how it is important.”
After the incident the candles were lit again.
US Ambassador Mark Brzezinski tweeted: “I am outraged by the nasty anti-Semitic act committed today by one of the Polish members of parliament.”
The incident was also denounced by Poland’s Catholic church.
“I am ashamed and I apologise to the whole Jewish community in Poland,” tweeted Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, the who leads a committee for dialogue with Judaism.
