“I am not anti-Semitic,” Irish television presenter Vincent Browne told The
Jerusalem Post on Monday, following his receipt of a censure from the
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) over his description of Israel as a
“cancer” while on-air.
In October 2012, Browne, who hosts a news program
on Irish channel TV3, sparked controversy when he stated that Israel is a
“cancer in foreign affairs.”
Israel, he further asserted, “polarizes the
Islamic community of the world against the rest of the world.”
Following
a complaint lodged against Browne with the BAI, the authority investigated the
matter and determined that while complainant Paul Rossiter believed that the
statement made was “offensive, anti-Semitic and indefensible for a journalist,”
it was in fact “the Committee’s view that this element of the complaint was not
substantiated by the program content and that there was nothing to indicate that
the remarks made were of this nature.”
However, the BAI noted in a
statement, the remarks did constitute “an editorial statement by the presenter
that was not balanced by contributions from the program guests.
The item
was therefore deemed to have failed to meet the requirement for fair, objective
and impartial treatment of news and current affairs.”
The authority also
noted that TV3 had “arranged for an appropriate representative of the State of
Israel to join Vincent Browne on his program in the coming weeks to discuss his
recent remarks” and that the network “regrets any offense caused to viewers of
the program.”
TV3 must air an apology within 21 days at a “similar time
to the original broadcast,” a spokesperson for the BAI told The Irish
Independent.
Speaking with the Post, the BAI’s Catherine Heaney said that
the authority would not “elaborate further beyond its final determinations” that
were published on its website.
Browne told the Post that the date for
“reading [an] apology on air that has yet to be decided.”
Explaining his
comments, the television presenter noted that he believes “the continued US
tolerance for what seems like Israeli obduracy on the outstanding issues with
the Palestinians is an exacerbation of international tensions.
In my view
Israel had to withdraw to the 1967 boundaries and there has to be an independent
sovereign Palestinian state, both states protected from interference by the
other.”
While Browne backtracked on his previous comments, stating that
his “use of the word ‘cancer’ was wrong,” he did take the opportunity to strike
back at those accusing him of anti-Semitism.
“I do not believe or accept
that criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitic. I am not anti-Semitic and
deplore anti- Semitism.”
Browne also clarified his views during a recent
interview with the London-based Jewish Chronicle, in which he stated that while
he did not wish to see it “eliminated,” he did believe the Jewish state to have
been “founded by confiscation of land previously occupied by Arabs. That
injustice is at the center of the conflict.”
Maurice Cohen, chairman of
the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, told the Post that the local
community “welcomes the fact that the complaint made to the Irish Broadcasting
Authority against TV3 and in particular Vincent Browne, has been partially
upheld.”
“It is nevertheless regrettable and deeply offensive to us that
the Jewish state would be described as a ‘cancer’ at a time when recorded
instances of anti-Semitism are on the rise across Europe,” he said.
Cohen
called it “regrettable and frightening” that “this demonization is propagated
through the Irish education system from primary to university by a small number
of organizations aligning themselves to the perceived underdog.”
The
Anti-Defamation League also lambasted Browne, saying that “while Browne may not
be an anti- Semite, the rhetoric is unmistakably anti-Semitic and his apology on
October 25 was wholly inadequate.”
“Jews as a disease in the world is a
classic anti-Semitic theme,” the ADL noted.
“Although the remark may not
have violated the Irish Broadcasting Act, the BAI decision was wrong on the
anti- Semitic nature of the ‘cancer’ remark.”
European Jewish Congress
president, Dr. Moshe Kantor, responded to the controversy by noting that he
believed that “Vincent Browne’s comments are part of a growing trend where more
and more decision-makers and opinion-shapers, unfortunately mainly from Europe,
have shrouded their anti-Semitism by attacking the Jewish state.”
“It is
incumbent on government and public officials to censure such comments, because
they attract such wide attention. There is an obvious connection between the
rise of ‘respectable anti-Semitism,’ and the number of anti-Semitic incidents in
Europe which are becoming more regular and habitual.”
|