Friday, August 28, 2015

Spanish broadcaster apologizes for ‘Jewish Satanism’ show

(JTA) A Spanish state-owned radio station apologized for airing a late-night program that featured an anti-Semitic trope alleging Jews were promoting the worship of Satan.

The assertion was part of a 30-minute show aired last month by the RTVE broadcaster and placed on its website.

On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League called on Spain’s government to condemn what the ADL termed “more than a half-hour of unadulterated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories” aired by the A La Carta program.

Titled “From the Inferno — The Jewish People: Propagator of the Satan Cult,” the text was lifted chapter and verse from “Plot Against the Church” — a 1962 book rife with anti-Semitic rhetoric written by a group of Mexican priests under the pseudonym Maurice Pinay.

RTVE removed the item from its website sometime after Aug. 20, amid a public outcry initiated by Yigal Palmor, a senior spokesperson of the Jewish Agency for Israel. On Thursday, an RTVE official sent Palmor a letter of apology. [...]

The outcry over RTVE coincided with an international controversy over the dis-invitation of the American Jewish singer Matisyahu from a music festival in Spain over his refusal to comply with organizers’ demand that he endorse a Palestinian state. Matisyahu, who alone was asked to make such a statement, was re-invited and performed last week at the festival after major Jewish groups decried his exclusion as discriminatory. [...]