"Jews only good for chimney smoke" - Romanian state TV

[Thanas]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 38703.html

Advocacy groups are incensed after a Romanian government-owned channel broadcast a Christmas song glorifying the Holocaust and calling for Jews to be burned. The channel is blaming a local group for the performance.

Outrage has erupted among advocacy groups in Romania after the state channel TVR broadcast an anti-Semitic Christmas song calling for Jews to be burned in a chimney. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), the song ran on a Dec. 5 broadcast by the rural-targeted TVR3 channel.

In the broadcast, a choir was shown singing a Christmas song that indirectly glorifies the Holocaust. The song, which rhymes and uses the word "jidovi," a pejorative word for a Jew, includes the lyrics, "only in the chimney as smoke, this is what the 'jidov' is good for."

On Wednesday, Romania's Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean harshly condemned the event and called on the public prosecutor's office and parliament to bring those responsible to justice. Israel's embassy said it was "concerned" about the broadcast.

Channel Shifts Responsibility

The channel said in a statement on Thursday that it was not responsible for selecting the Christmas songs, but merely broadcasting carols selected by a cultural center dedicated to preserving the traditional culture of the northwestern Cluj region. The YouTube video of the performance shows the host thanking both the singers and the director of the cultural center and asking him about local Cluj folklore values.

MCA Romania, a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism, said it was unacceptable for the channel to evade responsibility by blaming the local organization. According to the JTA, MCA sent a complaint to Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta that said: "It is outrageous that members of the public weren't scandalized by an anti-Semitic song calling for people to burn Jews."

TVR's leadership is already in the process of being replaced as a result of an unrelated matter, after the parliament concluded on Tuesday that the station had been mismanaged. TVR head Claudiu Saftoiu and the rest of the management were relieved of their positions and replacements have yet to be found.

I am not so sure how much of that is glorifying the holocaust or just standard progroms, though the difference is pretty much only academic.

[Zaune]

Time-delayed broadcasts, people. Look into 'em.

EDIT: The YouTube link doesn't work; do we have any Romanian speakers who could track it down?

[PKRudeBoy]

As far as I'm aware pogroms didn't involve mass cremation, and the ovens are just as iconic of the death camps as the "showers" are.

[Thanas]

As far as I'm aware pogroms didn't involve mass cremation, and the ovens are just as iconic of the death camps as the "showers" are.

Some progroms did involve mass burnings however.

[PKRudeBoy]

It might be nitpicking, or perhaps a translation issue or colloquialism, but the use of chimney makes me think Holocaust since I thought that pogroms were generally more spontaneous, open air affairs, with burnings going on outside or burning entire buildings down, as opposed to the industrialized efficiency of the Holocaust with dedicated buildings to burning bodies.

[Channel72]

Anti-semitism is so 20th century. The new thing is to hate Arabs.

[Lonestar]

Anti-semitism is so 20th century. The new thing is to hate Arabs.

They are Semites as well

[Channel72]

Nobody cares about the academic definition of "Semitic"

[Lonestar]

I do

[Thanas]

But Lonestar. You and all those pesky academics don't count.

[Lonestar]

[fgalkin]

Anti-semitism is so 20th century. The new thing is to hate Arabs.

Tell that to the Jews of Europe who are afraid to walk the streets openly for fear of inviting a racist attack

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[The Grim Squeaker]

Anti-semitism is so 20th century. The new thing is to hate Arabs.

Tell that to the Jews of Europe who are afraid to walk the streets openly for fear of inviting a racist attack

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Since hey, that certainly isn't the case in advanced, "Anti Israel, not anti semitic" , Western Europe. I mean, you wouldn't notice a difference from walking around with a Kippa/Yarmulk for a day, right?

[Thanas]

Since hey, that certainly isn't the case in advanced, "Anti Israel, not anti semitic" ,

Are you accusing opponents of Israel of being closeted anti-semites or why did you feel the need to bring Israel into this?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Since hey, that certainly isn't the case in advanced, "Anti Israel, not anti semitic" ,

Are you accusing opponents of Israel of being closeted anti-semites or why did you feel the need to bring Israel into this?

It was the first example that came to mind when looking for trite phrases on the theme of anti-semitism against Jews specifically.
And no, i'm not accusing all of them, or even most. I DO consider some of being anti-Jew (for lack of a better phrase, since this includes some semitic groups). But this is not the relevant point. Now am I interested in arguing this point.
Does that clarify it? I used a badly off topic example. End of story. Conceded. Wrong. I suck at debating. Acceptable now?

[Thanas]

No big deal, just wondering.