(JTA) — The Spanish public broadcaster that aired a program accusing Jews of promoting Satanism has pulled the program offline amid protests by Jewish groups.
The RTVE broadcaster removed the program, titled “From the Inferno-The Jewish People: Propagator of the Satan Cult” from its website sometime after Thursday, when JTA quoted Jewish Agency spokesman Yigal Palmor as calling it “crude, lowly and disgusting racism.”
On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League called on Spain’s government to condemn what the ADL called “more than a half-hour of unadulterated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories” that were read on air during the show.
RTVE did not immediately reply to a query by JTA as to the reasons for the item’s removal from its website and on how the broadcaster viewed the content.
The segment included the slander of Judaism lifted chapter and verse from the “Plot Against the Church,” a book published in 1962 filled with anti-Semitic rhetoric written by a collection of Mexican priests under the pseudonym Maurice Pinay.
“The fact that a vehemently anti-Semitic work filled with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and slander made it to the Spanish airwaves is seriously troubling and warrants immediate condemnation from the Spanish government,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s national director.
“The Spanish government condemned the decision by the Rototom Sunsplash reggae festival to cancel a concert by American Jewish artist Matisyahu, and we encourage them to act accordingly on this case in the same manner,” he said.
The festival organizers disinvited Matisyahu, who is not Israeli, over his refusal to endorse Palestinian statehood. He was the only performer requested to make such a statement.
Matisyahu, a former Hasid, was reinvited after news of the organizers’ actions provoked a wave of condemnations in Spain and beyond by groups and individuals who viewed them as anti-Semitic. He performed on Aug. 22 as Palestinian demonstrators staged a protest rally nearby.
