Hungary Won’t Charge Anti-Semitic Soccer Fans
Hungary’s government has condemned anti-Semitic chants by soccer fans at a recent match in Budapest, but signaled it would not prosecute them.
An announcement placed on Tuesday on the website of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said that the government “condemns in the strongest possible terms the insulting behavior of certain Hungarian football fans during the friendly match between Israel and Hungary on 15 August.”
At least a few dozen fans were filmed chanting “dirty Jews” and “Buchenwald” at various occasions during the game, including when Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva, was played. Various videos from the match that were placed on YouTube show them also calling out chants in praise of Palestinians.
Orban said in his statement that the government “takes action to eliminate all forms of discrimination” whenever possible, and “speaks out against provocative or insulting actions which are not in direct violation of the law, and therefore not subject to immediate intervention from the authorities.”
In April, a leading soccer club from The Hague banned, under orders from a Dutch court, eight soccer fans from entering the city’s soccer stadium for five to 10 years. They had been identified through research by the authorities after calling out anti-Semitic chants, including “Hamas, Jews to the gas.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!