JERUSALEM—The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized a decision by Hungary’s Supreme Court which recently ruled that local media cannot refer to the Jobbik party as “far right.”

UPDATE: See now Efraim Zuroff’s 14 June 2014 op-ed in the Jerusalem Post

In a statement issued today by its Israel director, the Holocaust historian and Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center asserted that the decision ignored Jobbik’s record of unequivocally anti-Roma and antisemitic activities and statements since its inception, and thereby granted the party a degree of legitimacy which it clearly did not deserve.

According to Zuroff:

“It is difficult to understand how an august judicial body like the Supreme Court could render such a decision which ignores Jobbik’s consistent record of right-wing extremism and incitement against minorities. Instead of allowing the media to expose the sinister discriminatory agenda of this neo-fascist political entity, it has granted Jobbik a degree of legitimacy which will increase its popularity to the detriment of all of Hungarian society.”