November 1, 2012
Copenhagen. (AP)
(CNSNews.com) -- Because of what it termed “concrete risks”
to the security of a Jewish group at a diversity festival in Copenhagen,
Denmark, the city government there advised the group not to display a large
Israeli flag at their festival booth.
In an interview with CNSNews.com,
Danish Zionist Federation spokesperson Jonatan Sousa said that when the group
asked the Copenhagen city officials to participate in the early September
festival, it was asked not to make the Israeli flag visible.
“When the Danish Zionist Federation
announced to the city municipality that we wanted to participate in the
diversity fair, we were asked not to show ‘visibly’ the Israeli flag. We were
told that there was a danger for our safety if we were to be visible,” Sousa
said in a statement to CNSNews.com.
He added that a “left-wing organization”
started to hand out fliers in front of the Danish Zionist Federation booth,
accusing the group of racism.
Soon after, the police stepped in and
asked the left-wing activists -- which according to Sousa was made up mainly of
Arab men -- to distribute their fliers away from the booth to avoid conflict.
“We had planned to have a large flag on
top of our stand but instead we kept flags inside our tent,” said Sousa.
“We were also asked to wait until a few minutes before the festival
started to set up our tent with Israeli flags. Again, because of safety
reasons.”
Flag of Israel.
“Simply, the city municipality was
afraid that the festival, which cost more than $150,000 in taxpayer money,
would end up in violence if Danish left-wing and Arab youngsters attacked the
Israeli tent. The festival is held to celebrate diversity and if it ended in
anti-Jewish violence this would be a tragedy for the mayor,” Sousa told
CNSNews.com.
Copenhagen City
officials said they asked the Zionist group not to display bigIsraeli flags for security reasons, and apologized
if their security concerns were interpreted as discriminatory.
“We did not ask Danish Zionist
Federation not to display the flag. There were many Israeli flags in the tent
that belonged to Danish Zionist Federation, who along with Palestinian,
Russian, Chinese and many other organizations and associations celebrated
diversity in Copenhagen,” a Copenhagen City Hall spokesperson said in a
statement to CNSNews.com.
“Because of security reasons we did
advise Danish Zionist Federation not to put up big flags in front of their
tent,” read the statement. “We gave that advice only for security reasons as
there unfortunately were concrete risks.”
City Hall also confirmed to CNSNews.com
that there were Israeli flags on display at the Zionist group’s booth during
the festival.
The Copenhagen Post reported on Oct. 26 that the Copenhagen deputy mayor for
employment and integration, Anna Mee Allerslev, said, “No one should feel
excluded from a diversity festival,” and also apologized to the Zionist group
for any misunderstanding.
“We had some experts who were deeply
concerned about the situation and were afraid that the security was not
sufficient,” she said. “This was advice, it was not a ban. It was done with the
best of intentions.”
The Smag Verden – Mangfoldighedsfest (Taste the World)
is an annual City Council-sponsored festival that features food items from
different cultures. It was held September 1-2 of this year.