Montana neo-Nazis say they’ll march on MLK Day

The editor of a neo-Nazi website claimed Thursday to have filed paperwork for a planned anti-Jewish march through a Montana town.

“As promised, we have filed our paperwork for the March on Whitefish, which is scheduled for January 16th, and carries the official title of the ‘James Earl Ray Day Extravaganza.'” wrote Andrew Anglin on the Daily Stormer white supremacist site.

Although originally announced for January 15, the march will now coincide with the public holiday of Martin Luther King Jr Day. The march is named after the avowed racist who was convicted of murdering King in 1968.

Whitefish, Montana, is home to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, president of the so-called “alt-right” National Policy Institute. Spencer’s mother also lives there.

The Daily Stormer site states that the march is a response to Jewish aggression, after claims surfaced that a realtor named Tanya Gersh threatened Spencer’s mother, trying to pressure her to sell a business property she owns in the city.

In November, Spencer spoke at a white supremacist event in Washington, DC, celebrating President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, in which he called out “Hail Trump!” and was greeted by Nazi salutes.

Anglin posted an image that he claims is the application for a permit to hold the rally through the Montana town. However, the Whitefish city clerk told the Forward that no application had been received. She also said that the image did not appear to include all the necessary details and information.

Spencer has said that he doesn’t believe the march will happen, calling it a joke, according to ABC-FOX Montana, but he has not denounced it.

Anglin claimed that right-wing extremists from UK, Sweden, France and Greece would be attending, along with a Hamas member who would speak “about the international threat of the Jews.”

According to the Daily Stormer, the march will go ahead unless Anglin receives an “apology and a vow to stop harassing Richard Spencer’s mother in the future.”

In Montana it is permitted to carry guns openly, and the organizers of the rally claim that the marchers will be armed.

There will be “two hundred skinhead Alt-Right Nazis marching with a guy from Hamas carrying machine guns through the center of their town!” Anglin claimed.

World Jewish Congress head Ronald Lauder called for the rally to be banned.

“When notorious and self-professed neo-Nazis announce that they are planning to march through a town carrying ‘high-profiled rifles’ in an action targeting ‘Jews, Jewish business, and everyone who supports either,’ the local authorities must respond with quick alarm and vigilance,” he said in a statement. “This rally crosses the line between freedom of expression and incitement to hatred.”

JTA contributed to this report.