Sweden: Nazis to march outside Gothenburg synagogue on Yom Kippur, police fail to see the problem

The Nazis wanted to march through one of the city's main avenues, but did not receive a permit to do so.  Instead, they'll march through side streets, right by the city's main synagogue.

Via Ilya Meyer:

On Yom Kippur this year, NMR – a neo-Nazi party – will be holding a racist demonstration in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their route takes them close to the doors of Gothenburg’s main synagogue.

On Yom Kippur.

The Gothenburg Jewish Community has always enjoyed an excellent, warm and professional relationship with the police, both the uniform branch and the security police. We have never hesitated to turn to the police with our security-related concerns over the years, and the police have always responded with the utmost attentiveness, flexibility and consideration.

Not this year, however. When the Jewish Community leadership pointed out that the date of the march and its route posed a particular security concern owing to their overt anti-Semitic symbolism, the police responded that they had taken into consideration the “security aspects” of the Nazi march and demonstration, explaining they are not concerned with the religious niceties of the Jewish religion on this or any other particular day. From the point of view of a security operation, the police say, this route allows them to keep everything under control.

Despite our decades of close and smooth cooperation, this response seems to suggest that the Gothenburg police have learned little over the years. The Gothenburg Jewish Community is not asking the police to reroute the march because we are upset that Nazis are insulting our religion or upsetting our emotions.

We are requesting that the march be rerouted because Jews both young and elderly will be coming to and from the synagogue all day long. As such, having a Nazi demonstration route that takes a few hundred uniformed racists close to our main doors is very much a security issue. Not an emotive one. It is not our sensibilities that are under threat, but our physical well-being.

(...)

It is the route, the venue, that is a serious security risk. A security risk to Jewish worshippers who will be entering and leaving the synagogue all day long.

It is a risk that the Gothenburg police are refusing to acknowledge.

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