Flyers appear on the same weekend that neo-Nazis demonstrated outside a GOP event in the Florida city.
By Pesach Benson, United with Israel
Residents of a Tampa suburb discovered antisemitic flyers left in front of their homes while neo-Nazis were demonstrating outside a Republican party youth summit downtown.
According to local TV station WTSP, the flyers found in the Tampa suburb of Lutz, were placed in clear plastic bags and contained a QR code along with photos.
One resident on a community group forum wrote that “It was five kids in an old white Honda, they threw them at me and my son,” WTSP reported.
Around the same time, neo-Nazis demonstrated outside a “Turning Point USA” Republican youth summit being held at the Tampa Convention Center.
Images and videos posted on social media showed several dozen masked demonstrators carrying a Nazi flag and another flag with the Nazi SS emblem. In one video, a man speaking into a bullhorn says, “Vote Ron DeSantis this year,” then added, “96 percent of the media is owned by six Jewish corporations.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has been touted as a possible presidential candidate in 2024, was one of the speakers inside the convention center. Also speaking was former President Donald Trump.
Local reports said that some of the demonstrators said to be associated with the antisemitic Goyim Defense League also distributed flyers saying that “every single aspect of abortion is Jewish.”
It wasn’t clear from local reports if the Goyim Defense League was responsible for the flyers appearing in Lutz. The Goyim Defense League has been responsible for a truck carrying antisemitic signs in Los Angeles, a “Vaxx the Jews” banner in Austin, and other flyers distributed in Florida.
Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, a local website, he didn’t know who the neo-Nazis were or why they came.
“They have nothing to do with TPUSA, our event, or our students. Our students took the mature route and vacated the space the Nazi flag holders were in. Once that happened, they left,” Kolvet said. He added that some of the TPUSA students argued with the Nazis, but eventually disengaged.
Florida Holocaust Museum director Mike Igel said in a statement Sunday that “openly and proudly displaying genocidal symbols is a direct threat to the Jewish community.”
“Carrying the Nazi flag, or that of the SS, the organization responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust, is an indefensible act of pure hatred,” he said.