Dutch spoof highlighted Gaza killings

Israeli has complained that a parody of its Eurovision winning-song which highlighted the killing of Palestinians in Gaza was anti-semitic.

The spoof of Netta Barzilai's Toy aired on aired on a satirical show on Dutch TV on Saturday.

In front of a backdrop showing footage of Israeli soldiers attacking protesters, Martine Sandifort sang lyrics such as: ‘Is your country surrounded by rock throwers? Build walls like Trump himself has wet dreams about/ Throw a buk-a-buk, throw a Buk rocket/Look how nicely I throw bombs.’

But the Israeli embassy in The Hague has complained  to the TV station.

According to the Jerusalem Post, ambassador Aviv Shir-On said: ‘We don’t rejoice when Palestinians are killed. When people lose their lives, and it doesn’t matter on which side, we don’t laugh. You shouldn’t either.

‘Showing sad and depressing videos in the background of the Israeli Eurovision winning song, was not only bad taste it was wrong and disgraceful. We can live with criticism, we do it ourselves often and intense, but we do not cross the lines. You did.’

He added that  the clip ‘included unfortunately also some anti-Semitic hints like mocking kosher food or referring to money in the old anti-Jewish way. It is not only unacceptable, it is dangerous.’

The Netherlands-based campaign group Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel also called the sketch anti-Semitic and ‘really poisonous’.

The chicken-clucking of the original song was replaced with the ker-ching of a cash register and references to ‘your dollars and cents and your pecunia [finance]’

But broadcaster BNN Vara told the BBC: ‘The parody brings Israel's policy up for discussion and is emphatically not an indictment against the Jewish community.’

Sixty Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza last week, the UN's human rights commissioner has said.

Here’s the clip:

Published: 22 May 2018