Punks and Skinheads: Good for the Jews? November 13, 2007

In Prague this past weekend, a pro-Nazi rally was scheduled to take place in the Jewish Quarter of the Czech capital. The parade, called for the day after the 69th anniversary of Kristallnacht, was organized by the Young Nationalist Democrats (MND), a far-right extremist group led by Erik Sedlacek, and had as its official pretense the protest of the Czech military presence in Iraq. The event was banned almost as soon as it was called, and despite the MND’s giving “eight alternate routes” and a backup date, after a number of court judgments (one of which said that “city hall was not empowered to judge the veracity of the pretext behind a march”) the ban remained.

The parade of some 400 right-wing extremists from the Czech Republic (backed up by “two busloads” of supporters from Germany) was squashed initially by police, who sealed off the neo-Nazis’ meeting point, making numerous arrests and seizing weapons there. A few straggling fascists did manage to make their way into the city and were met by a sight that the head of Prague’s Jewish Museum, Leo Pavlat, called a “very nice picture of the [Czech] nation”, more than 1,000 activists protesting the march:

More than 1,000 people rallied in the Czech capital’s old Jewish quarter to try to stop the march by members of the Young Nationalist Democrats….Police managed to keep most of the 400 right-wing marchers and the anti-Nazi demonstrators away from those commemorating the event.

The head of Prague’s Jewish Museum, Leo Pavlat, was among those gathering to protest against the neo-Nazi rally. “This street was to be the scene of the neo-Nazi provocation - actually we see huge gathering of people coming to protest against neo-Nazis,” he said.

“This is something that deserves appreciation and it’s also very nice picture of this nation and of this country.”

Who were these activists? The Czech Roma newswire ROMEA, in their coverage of the event, reported:

“Neo-Nazis clashed with anarchists at Faculty of Law on the edge of the Jewish Quarter in Prague today, there are probably injured people…”

The UK’s Independent reports:

“Dozens of neo-Nazis clashed with thousands of anti-fascists at the border of Prague’s Jewish Quarter yesterday on the anniversary of Krystalnacht…Two neo-Nazis lay in a thick pool of blood in front of the Charles University Law Faculty after being kicked and beaten by a group of German anarchists. A masked spokesman for the anti-Fascist movement said his group had assaulted at least 12 other neo-Nazis in the city centre.

The event was condemned by numerous politicians, and created a media outcry heard around the world, from Ha’aretz to Agence France-Presse, but who was it on the ground? With whom did the Jewish Museum’s head stand, saying that their presence was a “very nice picture”? One need not think too strenuously to put the proverbial “2 and 2 together”: “anarchist” plus “anti-fascist” plus “radical” equals, in a word, Antifa, the radical anti-fascist movement spurned out of the same hitorerut which gave America Anti-Racist Action.

A recent Nazi rally in Frankfurt was broken up by “1,500 antinazi” activists, a group led by a Lutheran pastor, and the local chapter of Antifa. The pastor’s group was branded “a terrorist organization” in a countersuit filed by the neo-Nazi organization. Antifa stopped them from making it to their meeting point by (peacefully) barricading the subway station. Anti-Antifa activists in Sweden were listed as being among the most virulent anti-Semites there. Throughout Europe, Jews’ worst enemies routinely meet their worst nightmares at the hands of Antifa activists.

This is not to suggest that Antifa are free of anti-Semitism, far from it. In fact, some of the anti-Zionist sentiments which have been known to become lamentably blended with anti-Semitic sentiments on the left have also made their way to Antifa. However, the track record suggests that wherever one finds the most virulent anti-Semites, the fascists have to reckon with an Antifa presence ready to oppose, counteract, and beat them whenever necessary. Surely the lives of at least a few Jews have been improved by Antifa actions.

Indeed, from the Ukraine’s Jewish Orthodox Skinheads (JOSH) to Antifa Israel, more Jewish radical-left organizations are beginning to make themselves known. Perhaps Antifa, being a worldwide anti-fascist network, are perceived as the “big guy who has our back” on the increasingly anti-Semitic streets. In addition, causes where one finds no lack of Jewish participation — environmentalist camps, labor organization, etc. — are, in general, also on the fascists’ hit lists. The anarchist punk rocker and the Antifa skinhead are often “on the same side” as their Jewish communities.

Is it a bad move in principle for Jewish organizations to show solidarity with radical left organizations? The answer to this question would undoubtedly depend on who one asks. The 16-year-old anti-fascist recently killed in Madrid was killed on his way to help immigrants, a large percentage of whom (in Spain) may come from Arab countries with deep-rooted anti-Semitic sentiments. On the other hand, we know that the most virulent Islamophobia also comes from the most virulent Jew-haters, so chances are one would be ill-advised to count Democracia Nacional as a friend of the Jews.

While they may be using tactics we abhor, the fact remains that radical left-wing organizations are fighting our enemies and feel an instinctive odium for those who would want to see us dead. While we may not like how they act, sof kol sof, organizations such as Antifa are acting in Jewish communities’ best interest much of the time, and like Leo Pavlat, perhaps we should address them as doing such and call their actions precisely what they may prove themselves to be.

“Very nice pictures” of the future of humanity — abhorring racist and fascist factions, unrelentingly acting for the common good.