{"id":3762,"date":"2020-02-22T20:14:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T01:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3762"},"modified":"2020-02-22T20:14:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T01:14:55","slug":"look-whos-bullying-free-speech-in-bulgaria-whatever-happened-to-freedom-of-political-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3762","title":{"rendered":"Look Who’s Bullying Free Speech in Bulgaria (whatever happened to freedom of political expression\/)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder extends deep thanks to Bulgarian government for quelling neo-Nazi Lukov March<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"WJC<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NEW\n YORK \u2013 World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder expressed his \npersonal gratitude on Saturday to the political and judiciary \nauthorities in Bulgaria, including Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and \nSofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, for putting a long-awaited end to the \nannual torch-lit demonstration that generally draws thousands of \nneo-Nazi marchers from across Europe to celebrate Holocaust-era General \nHristo Lukov, whose movement sent more than 11,000 Jews to their deaths \nin Treblinka. 
\n 
\nThis year, the organizers of the march agreed to obey a Supreme \nAdministrative Court decision to uphold a municipal court order limiting\n the event to only flower-laying at Lukov\u2019s home. The Sofia Municipal \nPolice also reportedly advised the organizers of the march that any \nperson who violated this order would be stopped. In the end, only some \n60 supporters were in attendance.
\n 
\n\u201cFor the first time in more than a decade, the Jewish community of \nBulgaria has been spared its yearly day of fear and apprehension from \nshameful flame-wielding thugs who parade through the streets to glorify \nthe very ideology that brought the near destruction of the Jewish \npeople,\u201d Lauder said. \u201cAt this frightening time of rising antisemitic \nactivity across the world, this is a moment of true victory for the \nJewish community, the people of Bulgaria, and all promoters of justice \nand tolerance worldwide.\u201d
\n 
\n\u201cThe World Jewish Congress is deeply grateful to the officials within \nthe Bulgarian political and judicial sectors, including Prime Minister \nBoyko Borisov, Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva and Deputy Foreign \nMinister & National Coordinator against Antisemitism Georg Georgiev,\n Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev, and the\n many others have been sincerely responsive to our concerns over this \ninciteful demonstration,\u201d Lauder added.  
\n 
\n\u201cOur partnership to ensure the safety and security of the Bulgarian \nJewish community has always been extremely positive and receptive, and \nthe government\u2019s proactive efforts in recent years in mobilizing to ban \nthe march despite the many legal obstacles is a clear testament to its \ntrue support and friendship,\u201d Lauder added. \u201cTheir cooperation last year\n with the WJC and the  Organisation of Jews in Bulgaria, Shalom, in \nconvening the first-ever March for Tolerance to oppose this scourge was \nanother critical demonstration of their dedication to helping us work to\n quell these flames of hatred, and it was an action that spoke louder \nthan words. This year, only a few dozen neo-Nazi thugs showed up. Next \nyear, let\u2019s hope that the month of February will pass without a single \ndisturbance of this kind.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder extends deep thanks to Bulgarian government for quelling neo-Nazi Lukov March NEW YORK \u2013 World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder expressed his personal gratitude on Saturday to the political and judiciary authorities in Bulgaria, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2118,2119,2117,1780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3763,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762\/revisions\/3763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}