Sunday 14 October 2007

First-ever desecration of Lisbon's Jewish cemetery

On 25 September, the small Jewish cemetery in Lisbon was vandalised by two neo-Nazi youths. 17 tombstones were desecrated and swastikas painted.

“This is an act inspired by a demon who lies in the heart of Europe”, said Father Peter Stilwell, who represented the Lisbon Patriarchate at the Taharat Kevurot ceremony held at the cemetery on 30 September.

One of the perpetrators had attacked an immigrant and kept images of black children marked “don’t feed the animals”.

2 comments:

CAA said...

Shame on us all.
But we are not like this, in Portugal.

CAA (Carlos Abreu Amorim)

Philosemite said...

Carlos, thanks for your comments.
I know that you not all Portuguese are like this. But I understand that Mário Soares, the man who characterised Arafat as a martyr, has not attended the ceremony, and the reason is well known!
See this please:
http://philosemitism.blogspot.com/search?q=soares
One cannot ignore the appalling comparison made by Portuguese Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago (Saramago is not in the same intellectual league as these to hooligans, is he?)of the extermination camp of Auschwitz to the situation prevailing in the Palestinian territories. I understand that he never retracted. I also check some of the best Portuguese blogs and am appalled by what I read - many reflect Saramago's opinion. Portugal, like the rest of Europe, has to cope with 2000 years of anti-Semitism, which now very conveniently is disguised under the language of anti-Zionism. It is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless.