Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Ominous Signs

Russian legislator seeks to outlaw Jewish organizations.

It starts with legitimizing the hatred, then the persecution intensifies, and then history repeats itself in spades.
MOSCOW - A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.

In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings “on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist.”

The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, “The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence.”

The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia. ...


Hat tip: Charles at LGF

1 comment:

lawhawk said...

Thanks for the link to the translation.