Montana neo-Nazi march ‘postponed’

The editor of a neo-Nazi website wrote Wednesday that a planned anti-Jewish march through a Montana town was postponed due to lack of a permit from the authorities.

“We’ve decided that due to the permit refusal by the city of Whitefish, we will need to postpone the planned march,” wrote Andrew Anglin on the Daily Stormer white supremacist site.

Anglin claimed that “two hundred skinhead Alt-Right Nazis” from the United Kingdom, Sweden, France and Greece would be attending, along with a machine gun-toting Hamas member who would speak “about the international threat of the Jews.”

Originally scheduled for January 15, the march was postponed to coincide with the public holiday of Martin Luther King Jr Day on January 16. Now Anglin claims it will be rescheduled, “probably for some time in February, and the march will be bigger and have more guns and special guests than we originally planned.”

There is skepticism that Anglin is capable of organizing a rally. The Forward noted that he “has mounted numerous online campaigns in recent years — but has never organized a rally of this scale.”

Whitefish, Montana, is home to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, president of the so-called “alt-right” National Policy Institute, who also doubted the march would ever happen. He called it a joke, according to ABC-FOX Montana, but he did not denounce it.

Despite Anglin’s claims of “Jewish trickery” leading to the march being postponed, it appears that he did’t file the proper paperwork.

The Forward spoke with Vanice Woodbeck, the assistant clerk in Whitefish, who said that she received Anglin’s application Monday morning. She said she told Anglin that he had not filled out the form properly.

On Saturday a rally was held in the city sponsored by the Love Not Hate organization, which the Daily Stormer has accused of threatening white supremacist leader Richard Spencer’s mother, who also lives in the town.

Several hundred people reportedly turned out for the rally — billed as a block party — in sub-zero degree weather, according to Montana Public Radio. The rally included speeches from city and faith leaders, local singers and storytellers, according to the report.

Another pic of Montana @DemSocialists participating in today's anti-fascist rally in Whitefish, Montana. pic.twitter.com/RaDM8S2IjR

— Montana DSA ???? (@Montana_DSA) January 8, 2017

“This is indeed a community where the voices that speak love and acceptance are so many more numerous than those that speak for hate and division,” Jessica Loti Leferrier, a Love Not Hate rally organizer, told Montana Public Radio.

There are about 100 known Jewish households in Whitefish and nearby Kalispell, part of the Flathead Valley.

Montana lawmakers and faith leaders have issued statements in support of the Whitefish community.

Whitefish has a population of about 6,000 full-time residents and is home to a ski resort on Big Mountain called Whitefish Mountain Resort.