The derisive commentary of Toma Belev is practically in violation of all national and international documents on the topic of antisemitism“The cheapest transport was provided to the Jews in freight cars – entirely free of charge,” wrote Toma Belev, candidate of Democratic Bulgaria for the Municipal Council of Sofia, in his Facebook profile.
According to the research of the daily newspaper Trud, Belev’s position is not only mocking the Holocaust, but also violates a number of international and Bulgarian documents adopted by the UN, the Council of the European Union and the Bulgarian Parliament. In March 1999 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution against racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. It states that all member states of the UN must show intolerance to these phenomena. Near the end of last year, the Council of the EU published a declaration regarding “the fight against antisemitism and the development of a common security approach to better protect Jewish communities and institutions in Europe.” "The Member States [need] to take appropriate measures against hate crimes and incitement to violence or hatred against Jewish people and to fully implement the Council Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law," states the declaration. On March 8, 2013 the Bulgarian Parliament also adopted a declaration. It states that “the Parliament resolutely condemns any instances of xenophobia, antisemitism, religious and ethnic intolerance, and joins the global combat against them.” The derisive commentary of Toma Belev is, in fact, violating all national and international documents on the topic of antisemitism. In the hours after the publication on Facebook, there was a mass reaction to the “ecologist’s” post. Lea Cohen, writer, member of the 7th Great National Assembly of Bulgaria and ambassador in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein and the EU expressed her indignation. “Your post is highly inappropriate. You should apologize to people like me. Fifty-eight members of my family departed in such freight cars. Your remark is truly derogatory,” wrote Cohen to Belev. “Is this antisemitic commentary a part of your campaign for the municipal council?” asked the Bulgarian public figure Veni Markovski. Aleksandar Sidi, member of the Parliament from VMRO alerted the Deputy Foreign Minister and national coordinator of the fight against antisemitism Georg Georgiev. 
“I am not familiar with the context of this statement. I followed the discussion where Belev was convinced with reasonable arguments to apologize for the nonsense he had written and he firmly refused to do so. In this case foolishness is not an excuse, especially when it comes from a person included in the list of candidates of Democratic Bulgaria,” wrote Toma Bikov, Member of the Parliament. On Sunday the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) published a declaration insisting that Democratic Bulgaria and the candidate of the coalition for mayor of Sofia Borislav Ignatov state their position regarding Toma Belev’s statement. “Belev’s act is dangerous, because he is a politician from an allegedly democratic and pro-European coalition. Their representative made an intolerable mockery of the faith of the Jews and he doesn’t even think it is necessary to apologize. The lack of reaction on the side of the leaders of Democratic Bulgaria and Borislav Ignatov shall be perceived as tacit consent to Belev’s position,” reacted from SDS. Meanwhile media such as Dnevnik, Kapital and Mediapool that always write big headlines upon any suspicion of xenophobia this time remain silent. There is no position from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. Social media users are asking about the reason for this double standard of the media. After arguing for 24 hours that he sees nothing derogatory in his statement, Toma Belev wrote an apology on Facebook that was as cynical as his post. Instead of regret, his sentences were filled with insolence and self-confidence. On Sunday, in the afternoon, Belev deleted from the social network his mockery of one of the most tragic events in human history, the Holocaust, when millions of Jews were transported in freight cars to the death camps and killed. The comments on Facebook, however, keep coming. “Do you know what these cars were transporting? People! Living people. Children, elderly, women, men, crammed without air, travelling to their death,” reminds the user Ninel Kyoseva. At the beginning of next week several parities will officially ask the Central Electoral Commission to eliminate the “conservationist” from the elections due to his antisemitic statements, writes Trud. Blitz.bg
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