Hungary Bans Pro-Gaza Protest
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán banned a pro-Palestinian “Stand with Gaza” protest in Budapest on Friday, saying Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism.
“While sympathy demonstrations in support of [Palestinian militant group] Hamas have been held all across Western Europe, this kind of gathering is not permitted in Hungary,” he told Hungarian state-run radio in his semi-regular weekly interview.
“If a country suffers a terrorist attack, it has the right to take steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Orbán added, referring to Hamas attacks against Israel in which more than 1,300 people died.
Under Hungary’s Law on the Right of Assembly, organizers must request permission from police for specific public gatherings, but authorities could ban the event.
In an unusual move, Orbán, a close political ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, personally banned the protest instead of the mayor of Budapest, his office confirmed.
“Viktor Orbán learned of the demonstration planned for Friday before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Budapest on his return from an official trip to Georgia. He took immediate action to prevent it,” said Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister’s press chief, in published remarks.
Orbán told Hungarian radio that “pro-terrorist demonstrations” are prohibited in Hungary.
The Budapest Police Department (BRFK) said later that a protest had been banned in front of the Ministry as it “fits with Hamas’ call for a ‘Global Day of Rage’ on this day.”
PUBLIC SAFETY
The police said the rally was banned “under the Law on the Right of Assembly, as it would directly threaten public safety and public order.”
Organizers of the “Stand with Gaza” rally said the protest was to show that [the Palestinian enclave of] “Gaza is a symbol of pride and justice to our Palestinian cause, join in spreading our voices to demand freedom!”
However, Hungarian police warned that participation in the banned rally would incur unspecified sanctions.
The planned protest also came at a sensitive time for Budapest: the Hungarian capital is organizing its 150th anniversary year with the local Jewish community, which suffered in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah.
Mayor Gergely Karácsony said recently that the 150th-anniversary marks not only the unification of the regions of Pest, Buda, and Óbuda into one city but the integration of various cultures
The program also celebrates the 75th birth anniversary of Israel. “Budapest will remain a city of bonds and diversity on which multi-colored palette Jewish culture is one of the nicest colors,” Karácsony said.
Around 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered during World War Two, but the country’s Jewish community now comprises at least 100,000 people, the largest in Eastern Europe outside Russia.
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