(JTA) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered police to prevent protests and rallies that would disturb the World Jewish Congress General Assembly in Budapest.
Orban issued the ban on Tuesday, Reuters reported, including on an “anti-Zionist” demonstration planned for Friday, the first day of the international conference.
The demonstration, called an “anti-Bolshevik and anti-Zionist people’s gathering,” was announced earlier this month by Lorant Hegedus Jr., a Calvinist priest and member of the ultrarightist, anti-Semitic Jobbik party, which has nearly 15 percent of the seats in Hungary’s Parliament.
The WJC assembly is being held in Budapest — the first time in many years it is outside of Jerusalem — in an expression of solidarity with Hungary’s Jewish community, which in recent years has faced an increased threat of anti-Semitism.
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