Jewish leaders have appealed a decision by Gothenburg police to grant a demonstration permit to a neo-Nazi group for a march on Yom Kippur.
The Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) is planning to march around 250 metres from the main synagogue in Sweden’s second city, in what appears to be a deliberate provocation to the country’s Jews.
Around 18,000 Jews live in Sweden, mainly comprising Holocaust survivors and their descendants.
“Swedish Nazis’ growing presence is a significant cause for concern, not least for us Jews,” Aron Verständig, chairman of the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, the country’s EJC affiliate, and Allan Stutzinky, chairman of the Jewish Community in Gothenburg, wrote in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.
They have urged the police to adjust the route of the demonstration so that it does not pass near the synagogue. However, Gothenburg city centre is small and any march would inevitably pass near the synagogue, the police say. The police have also already restricted the NRM’s march, after the neo-Nazis had hoped to get closer to the Gothenburg Book Fair, which is also taking place on September 30.
Police commissioner Erik Nord told Swedish radio that he and his colleagues are simply following Swedish law. “The paradox is that the UN Declaration on Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which came about after the Nazi crimes during the Second World War, state that it is incredibly important to have freedom of opinion, democracy and assembly,” Nord said. “One could say that what we’re doing here is contributing to upholding democracy.”
