World Report

Friday, December 13, 2002 | by

NEW YORK (JTA)—The Simon Wiesenthal Center is protesting a best-selling novel by an Egyptian-Italian teenager, saying it is sympathetic to suicide bombers and incites hatred against Israel and Jews.

"Dreaming of Palestine" by 15-year-old Randa Ghazy was published in Italy earlier this year, and a French edition was recently released. French Jewish leaders are also protesting the book.

Ghazy, born in Italy of immigrant Egyptian parents, tells the story of a group of Palestinian teenagers, one of whom blows himself up and kills five Israelis. Calling the book "horrific," the Wiesenthal Center said it is "full of libelous accusations and clearly incites racist violence and validates terrorism."

Skinheads disrupt chanukiah lighting

BUDAPEST (JTA)—Hungarian police are apologizing for allowing more than 100 skinheads to demonstrate just as members of Chabad were about to light a Chanukah candle in a downtown Budapest square.

The skinheads, members of Hungary's Revisionist movement, blocked the small square where Chabad members were about to light the sixth Chanukah candle on the evening of Dec. 4.

Police did not interfere, having given the skinheads permission to demonstrate against the Trianon treaty, under which Hungary lost more than one-third of its territory after World War I.

Though there was no

physical confrontation, the skinheads shouted offensive slogans: "Hungary is for Hungarians, and it's better that those who are not Hungarians leave."