Hungarian mayor leads protests against Israel

The extremist right-wing mayor of a town in eastern Hungary held a mock-execution in which effigies of the Prime Minister and former President of Israel were hanged, in what he claims was a protest against the war in Gaza. Erpatak mayor Mihaly Zoltan Orosz told reporters on Monday that the “Jewish terror state” is trying to obliterate the Palestinians and said he opposed “the efforts of Freemason Jews to rule the world.” Hungary's foreign ministry condemned the mayor's actions, saying he was using innocent victims of the war “to spread hate-inducing propaganda.” An online video of Saturday's event shows an executioner with a black hood over his face kicking chairs out from under the puppets of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Shimon Peres, each tied to a gallows. Flanked by flag-bearing youths, he holds an Israeli-like flag, where the Star of David has been replaced with the Freemason symbol. Read more: Jobbik: The shadow of anti-semitism falls on Europe once more Owen Jones: We can’t just wish away anti-Semitism Orosz has been mayor of the town 240km from the capital of Budapest since 2005, and is affiliated with the ultra-nationalist group Jobbik. The group are part of a trend of so-called ‘Putinism’in Hungary, characterised by support for nationalism, religion, social conservatism, state capitalism, and government domination of the media. Earlier in the year, anti-racism groups in the UKattempted to ban Jobbik’sleader, Gabor Vona, from making a speech in Londonwhich co-incided with Holocaust Memorial Day. At the time, the then-leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, had spoken of a “common core” of shared values with Jobbikand the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn