Ban white nationalist from Polish Independence Day event, Jewish group urges

WARSAW, Poland — The American Jewish Committee Central Europe office in Warsaw has appealed to Polish authorities to prevent the visit to Poland of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer as part of the celebration of the National Independence Day.

Spencer was invited to a meeting organized for November 10 by the National Social Congress, a national organization that posted a photo on its Facebook page with the message: “All different all white.”

Spencer is president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank. He was present in Charlottesville, Virginia during the demonstration in August that led to the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer. He also was co-organizer of a conference on “white” Europe scheduled for October 2014 in Budapest. By decision of the Hungarian Interior Minister, the meeting was canceled and Spencer himself was deported from Hungary after a few days of detention.

“Spencer’s views strike not only the Jewish community or other minority groups. The hatred that Spencer and his followers proclaim is a threat to all who are close to the values of human rights and democracy,” Agnieszka Markiewicz, director of the AJC Central European office, said in her call to Polish authorities, which was published in a Polish daily newspaper.

“We call on the organizers to remove his name from the list of participants in the planned meeting, and the authorities to support this call,” she also said.

The meeting, under the title “Europe of the future,” is scheduled to take place the day before Polish independence day. The exact location of the event has not yet been announced. It is only known that it will take place in the center of Warsaw.