Enemies, liberals, Jews

Last Saturday, Pavel Adamovich, mayor of the city, killed on January 13 at a charity concert, was buried in Gdansk. The funeral was broadcast live, in many cities of Poland, screens were installed in the central squares, to which people brought flowers and candles. Adamovich was buried with honors, but literally on the eve of the murder, the state media Poland broadcast completely different things. For example, a plasticine cartoon about the charity organization "Big Orchestra of Christmas Assistance", at the event of which Adamovich performed.

This organization, founded in 1993 by a radio journalist in a hedgehog, is an Ovosuk, every year, at Christmas, holds concerts to collect funds for the treatment and prevention of serious diseases in children. In a one and a half-minute cartoon, a shelter is represented by a puppet in the hands of the former mayor of Warsaw Hannah Gronkevich-Valz; He collects money not for children, but for her. On some bills, the author of the cartoon Barbara sang depicted the star of David, and Grinkvich-Walz looks like a caricature Jewish.

Photo: wyborcza.pl

Neither Adamovich, nor Ovsyak, nor Gronkevich-Walz are Jews, but the anti-Semitic subtext in the murder of Adamovich does not appear by chance. Rumors that Gronkevich-Walz Jewish first began to spread during the 1995 presidential campaign, in which she participated as an independent candidate with the support of a conservative Catholic coalition. After the attempt on Adamovich in both the Polish and foreign press, he is often called the "liberal mayor." At the same time, Adamovich, strictly speaking, was not a liberal - he was a conservative Catholic. And even when he announced his readiness to accept refugees in Gdansk, he justified this with Christian duty. Something similar happens everywhere: liberals began to call politicians almost any orientation that advocate democratic values, human rights and - which is characteristic - for the help of refugees. In Germany, the conservative angel Merkel is considered a liberal and almost a dangerous communist not only supporters of the ultra -right "alternative for Germany."

The Triad "Enemy of the People - Liberal - Jew" is an old anti -Semitic tradition that is now reviving in various countries. The episode with the Polish cartoon is not atypical only by its frankness - usually the modern anti -Semitic discourse avoids the words "Jews", the stars of David and the like. So, without the word “Jews”, but using all conceivable cliches, the largest anti -Semitic campaign in Europe is conducted - “Stop Soros”, unleashed by the Hungarian law -Popopulistic government of Victor Orban.

Soros billionaires-Philanthropist are ideally projected by stereotypes about the omnipotent world backstage, ruthless Jewish financial capital and the like. Since July 2017, the whole country was glued with posters with the inscription "Stop Soros". There were different texts and motives on the posters, but they all expressed one idea: Soros wants to destroy Hungary, and for this he will import migrants into it and plants liberalism.

The struggle of the Hungarian authorities with Soros reached the climax in 2018, when the Central European University and the Open Society Foundation sponsored from the country, and criminal liability was introduced for the help of refugees.

Photo: Lydia Gall/Human Rights Watch

On January 12 of this year, the Swiss edition of Tagesanzeiger published a lengthy article on how a campaign to turn Soros into a virtual enemy, which could be blamed for all the real and fictional problems of Hungary and declare a real war for Orban was invented by the right -wing American political technologists Arthur Finkelstein and George Birnbaum. The image of the villain Soros was quite consciously built on popular anti -Semitic prejudices, and largely thanks to them, the campaign was extremely successful far beyond Hungary.

On the one hand, Soros has become the main object of hatred for nationalists and opponents of liberal democracy around the world. In 2017, Kristina Pavlovich called Soros the deputy of the Polish Sejm from the ruling Law Popopulistic Party of PIS "the most dangerous person in the world." At the same time, publicly accusing Soros of the most incredible crimes, we can pretend that we are talking about him personally, and not about "Jews in general." On the other hand, it turned out that the elements of the campaign can be reproduced, not only without using the words "Jews", but even without mentioning the Soros. As the ultra -right "alternative to Germany" on its posters against the UN migration pact does.

According to Tagesanzeiger, political strategist Finkelstein at one time became famous for turning the word "liberal" into a curse. This, of course, was not quite well -deserved laurels, Goebbels scolded so, but Finkelstein, obviously, taught this his conservative customers and contributed to the resurrection of the glorious tradition, as well as the animation of the Association "Enemy = Liberal = Jew".

The context in which the murder of Pavel Adamovich took place recalls that this ligament can be fatal. The 27-year-old man, who mortally wounded the mayor of Gdansk with a knife on the stage during the concert, managed to say into the microphone that he was unjustly sitting in prison due to the fault of the Opposition Party "Civil Platform". Adamovich was in this party until 2015. Now it is known about the killer that he was serving a prison term for armed robberies of banks and suffer from a mental disorder. Can this murder be considered political? In a society in which the words "enemy", "liberal" and "Jew" are used as synonyms, is quite.