The protest’s popularity has fuelled antisemitism more than opposition politics

At around four o’clock this morning, a series of unusual messages woke me up.

They were from Maks Konomi, one of the founders of the Democratic Party and one of its former ministers in the 1990s. He had sent me a long message about an incident at Tirana airport.

Maks was travelling to France on an Israeli passport, because he has dual citizenship. He felt deeply insulted by a border police officer who asked him why he was using an Israeli passport. Did he not like the Albanian one?

Naturally, Maks argued with him.

He even took the officer’s identification number.

But that is not the main reason I am writing this.

The issue is wider. It is about the quiet spread of antisemitism in a country that has tried to make itself known for exactly the opposite: protecting and sheltering Jews at one of the darkest moments in history.

The antisemitic gestures attached to the current political protests, the removal and humiliation of the Israeli flag, and the growing attempt to connect the protest to the fact that Jared Kushner is Jewish have all helped legitimise an antisemitic mood in Albania.

Since the anti-government protests began, these incidents have made people bolder about expressing antisemitism in public.

Instead of clearly distancing themselves from this language, the protest organisers bully anyone who raises the concern, or try to relativise it.

One BIRN journalist, who in recent weeks has effectively become a microphone-holder at the protest, mocks anyone who speaks about antisemitic language. He mocks those who are troubled when protesters wear T-shirts showing Edi Rama with the word “Jew” written on them. He mocks those who react to protesters removing the Israeli flag.

The organisers have shown almost no clear distance from antisemitic gestures.

The only exception was one spokesman who said foreign groups were trying to influence the protest. He was immediately branded a secret service agent.

Large and popular protests can show society’s strength against power.

But they can also be hijacked by causes that seriously damage the dignity of that society.

The Tirana protest has used its extraordinary international visibility — which in fact is linked to Donald Trump and his family — more to strengthen antisemitism than to strengthen opposition politics in Albania.

Once this spirit is legitimised, antisemitism spreads by itself.

It finds a place among religious fanatics, in superficial media, in social-media debates, and then in everyday life — all the way to the border police officer.

Maks Konomi is the son of Manol Konomi, the former justice minister who refused to approve executions without trial after the bombing at the Soviet embassy.

Naturally, he felt insulted that a border police officer would judge him because he holds an Israeli passport.

But we would not have reached the border police officer without the reckless misuse of Albania’s most popular protest.

A protest that should have been against Edi Rama as Albania’s prime minister has too often been turned against Edi Rama as a “Jew”.

Originally published in Albanian as: Popullariteti i protestës ka forcuar më shumë antisemitizmin se sa opozitarizmin në Shqipëri