Police moved a soccer match between an Israeli team and a German team from Dresden to Leipzig after a neo-Nazi group hinted at a possible attack against the team from Jerusalem.
The Intertoto Cup match between the Israeli team Betar Jerusalem and the German first-league team Dynamo Dresden was played Saturday under increased security.
Dresden police said soccer players were driven by buses from Dresden to Leipzig, 80 miles away, under police protection.
Although Leipzig police said no anti-Israeli threats had been registered, the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported that neo-Nazis had indirectly hinted at a possible attack, on a telephone hot line that tells of planned actions against foreigners.
The text of the messages had been carefully chosen in order to avoid legal action.
The German press agency reported that the original stadium in the small town of Kamenz, 31 miles northeast of Dresden, did not have a security fence.
Because the Dynamos’ home stadium is being renovated, the match was transferred to the Leipzig suburb of Markklebeerg.
In another action planned by neo-Nazis, European right-wing extremists have scheduled a conference for Nov. 9, the 55th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, in Berlin’s Reichstag, the old German parliament building.
The head of the Jewish community in Germany, Ignatz Bubis, has protested the conference, and the Berlin authorities have said such a meeting will put them in a difficult situation.
Bubis told the Berliner Zeitung that he will clarify with the authorities whether the assembly could be banned for fear of violent protests.
He added that he will contact the European Jewish Congress about this matter.
Rightist members of the European Parliament from Holland, Belgium, Italy, France and Germany, headed by France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, are to participate in the meeting.
The head of the Social Democrats in Berlin, Ditmar Staffelt, has called upon Germans to "block this provocation" by denying the extremist "demagogues" hotel rooms.
"A neo-Nazi conference in the Reichstag on Nov. 9 would be a nightmare," he concluded.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
