Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF, has apologized and fired an editor over an antisemitic post, with the employee agreeing to the termination of his contract. The decision was announced on Friday and reported by the dpa news agency.
The controversy stemmed from a now-deleted Facebook post in which the editor wrote: “If I’ve been a victim for 2,000 years, then I should slowly start to think about why that might be.”
ORF Director General Roland Weißmann condemned the remark as “completely unacceptable.”
The editor later stated, “I deeply regret having written a sentence that I would not have let stand unchallenged from anyone else.” He added that the post goes against everything he has stood for in his private and professional life.
Jewish community representatives expressed outrage, demanding immediate consequences for the comment, which the Jewish Community for the Austrian states of Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia stated “crossed a red line.”
Austria, like many other countries in the world, has seen an uptick in antisemitism since October 7, 2023, when Hamas brutally attacked southern Israel.
Just last week, an Uber driver who came to drive a Jewish family from Vienna began to hurl antisemitic slurs, forced the family out of the car, and even physically assaulted the father.
The driver launched his antisemitic tirade after he learned that some of the family members were from Israel. He called them “murderers” and “baby killers.”
Data released in 2024 showed that before October 7, 2023, an average of one to two cases of antisemitism were reported per day in Austria. Since that time, there have been an average of eight to nine incidents per day.
(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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