Over 30 NGOs have urged Lithuania’s Social Democrat Party to exclude the Nemunas Dawn party, whose leader lost his seat in parliament over anti-Semitic remarks, from the next ruling coalition following recent elections.

“As we live in a time of war, the common European values and the support of our Western allies are the cornerstone of our security.” Laura Tatarelyte, executive director of the European Movement, wrote in the open letter. “Therefore, we cannot afford to undermine our mutual trust and the country’s reputation in the eyes of the international community where any manifestation of anti-Semitism is strongly condemned.”

The open letter was initiated by the European Movement and the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights, and was signed by more than 30 NGOs.

by Justina Vaišvilaitė-Braziulienė, November 11, 2024, delfi.lt

Leading candidate for prime minister Social Democrat Gintautas Paluckas said he assured German partners Lithuania’s next Government will be free of anti-Semitism. The deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party (LSDP) said he answered all questions concerning the potential coalition partner Nemunas Dawn raised by German Social Democrats over the weekend.

“This morning we also spoke with the chair of the German Social Democrats and we discussed this situation. No doubt they are watching this, given we are strategic partners and have serious bilateral commitments. I explained the situation as it actually is, so they don’t get the impression from inaccurate quotes on social media and in the media,” Paluckas told reporters at the Lithuanian parliament Monday.

“There is not and there will not be any anti-Semitism in the Social Democrat-run Government and coalition,” he said when asked to elaborate on the factual situation he presented to the Germans.

Šiauliai city and district police arrested a city resident November 6 alleged to have taken the remains of an Israeli flag from the Šiauliai Jewish Community building after removing and destroying it, Šiauliai district police reported.

Security cameras captured the vandal removing the flag from its mount outside the Jewish community building, casting it aside and then leaving. Later the same figure appeared to return, destroy the flag and carry off the remains. Desecration of flags of other nations, the EU and certain international organizations is a crime under article 128 of the Lithuanian criminal code.

Officers from the city and district police forces were patrolling the city and observed the suspect from the video camera around noon that day. They arrested him. The 52-year-old man had a criminal record including theft, robbery and counterfeiting of official documents. The charge could carry a maximum two-year prison sentence.

by Geoff Vasil

Last Thursday night into Friday morning gangs of Hamas supporters hunted down and assaulted Israeli fans of the Tel Aviv Maccabi FC soccer team in Amsterdam. There were multiple people wounded, some seriously. The masked gangs waving Palestinian flags demanded statements of “Free Palestine” from two of their victims as they were being beaten, including one non-Israeli caught up in street violence.

The organized pogrom against Jews in the Dutch capital came on the eve of Kristallnacht, the Nazi SA’s nation-wide pogrom in Germany in 1938.

While the public has come to expect violence between fans of rival soccer clubs in Europe, these attacks were something else. Earlier in the evening Israeli fans had chanted anti-Arab slogans as they left the sporting venue and boarded trains for their hotels, but Israelis didn’t initiate any violence. Sources close to Israeli intelligence report taxi drivers in Amsterdam supplied information to the organized violent gangs on where Israeli fans had travelled and the locations where they were staying.

Israel sent several airplanes to rescue Israeli citizens from the violence in Amsterdam. El Al reported they evacuated 2,000 Israeli citizens. Dutch King Willem-Alexander said “our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse,” adding that the country could not ignore “anti-Semitic behavior,” the BBC reported. Amsterdam police didn’t intervene to stop the hunting down of Jews and brutal assaults by knife-wielding Hamas terrorists.

The Šiauliai Jewish Community headquarters has been vandalized for the third time recently on November 6. This time an unknown subject removed an Israeli flag from its holder outside the building and desecrated the flag. Last week a vandal also attacked the Israeli flag there. Police arrested and fined a man in a recent similar incident before that.

Security cameras captured the crimes on October 30 and November 6, respectively:

The Israeli parliament the Knesset voted Monday to ban all activities by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency largely responsible for delivering food and medicine in Gaza. Israeli lawmakers made the move following the presentation of evidence UNRWA staff were among the Hamas terrorists who raped, burned and killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, and took another 250 hostage. Israel had shown videos the terrorists made of themselves during that massacre and invasion show UNRWA staff driving motorcycles and holding guns and hand grenades.

The United Nations initially denied the accusations, then performed an investigation of itself, which basically concluded some UNRWA staff “might have been involved.” Later the UN argued UNRWA staff including Hamas terrorists are basically international diplomats and therefore enjoy diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

The Knesset passed two laws dealing with UNRWA. The first bans all activities on Israeli soil, presumably meaning inside Israel including the Golan Heights but not the West Bank or Gaza. The second law specifically states UNRWA staff are not immune from prosecution for their crimes, as well as banning official contact between Israeli agencies and public servants with UNRWA.