Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday ordered police to prevent protests and rallies that would disturb the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Budapest next week. Orban issued the ban against an "anti-Zionist" demonstration planned for Saturday. The demonstration, called an "anti-Bolshevik and anti-Zionist people's gathering," was announced earlier this month by Lorant Hegedüs Jr., a Calvinist priest and member of the extreme-right, anti-Semitic Jobbik party, which holds nearly 15 percent of the seats in Hungary's Parliament.
The WJC assembly is being held in Budapest - the first time in many years it is outside of Jerusalem - in an expression of solidarity with Hungary's Jewish community, which in recent years has faced an increased threat of anti-Semitism.