Neo-Nazi acts in schools rise 760%, says study – 04/28/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

The occurrence of neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic violations in Brazilian schools registered a 760% increase between 2019 and 2022, points out an unprecedented report by the Jewish Observatory of Human Rights in Brazil. Last year alone there were 43 events of this type, compared to five of them in 2019, three in 2020 and seven in 2021.

A preliminary report released by the organization last August already drew attention to the fact that neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic occurrences had practically been doubling, year after year, under the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) – and made a warning sign for their proliferation in the school environment.

According to the most recent study, which will be released this Saturday (29), 2022 concentrated more than 50% of all episodes involving neo-Nazi violations recorded in the country since 2019.

Of the 171 cases identified in the period, 89 occurred last year. The increase was also reflected in anti-Semitic acts: of the 69 that took place in the last four years, 25 of them (36%) refer to 2022.

According to the observatory, the most frequent type of action (50%) throughout the analyzed period is related to the use of characteristic symbols of Nazism, such as the swastika, whether on clothes or drawn in public places, and outstretched arms in reference to the Nazi salute, among others.

The researchers draw attention, however, to neo-Nazi or anti-Semitic episodes involving physical violence. Although they account for less than 10% of cases, there has been an increase of around 67% from 2021 to 2022.

“The phenomenon is not new in Brazil, which hosted the largest branch of the Nazi party outside Germany, with 3,000 members, in the first half of the 20th century”, says the Jewish Observatory. “What is striking is that this ideology, which has never ceased to exist in the country, has multiplied since 2019, with the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a representative of the extreme political right and whose hate speech legitimized the advance. of these groups”, follows.

The study highlights that actions involving the police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and technology companies to curb this type of activity are important, but have been carried out insufficiently. It could be necessary, according to the report, to criminalize the apology of Nazism —which, in Brazil, is punished based on the racial crimes law.

“What scholars on the subject have noticed is that, over the years, these groups have articulated themselves while competing for protagonism in their regions, relying on extreme right-wing leaders who occupy spaces of power, whether in the Executive, in the Legislature and even in the Judiciary”, says the observatory.

“The difficulty in combating them lies not only in the fact that they have the support of these leaders, but also in the fact that, when identified, they disband and reorganize. With this, they manage to maintain the abundant distribution of criminal material in the underworld of the internet, like the literature that denies the Holocaust or our history of slavery, full of lies, false assumptions and conspiracy theories”, he concludes.

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CATWALK

Stylist Marcelo Quadros and businesswoman Tainah Barreto, from Shoes Barreto, received guests, on Thursday night (27), for the launch of a partnership between them. Journalist Mariana Godoy attended the parade, which took place at Casarão Nhonhô Magalhães, in São Paulo. Stylist Isa Isaac Silva also stopped by.

_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH}

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