Dutch Catholic TV airs Jews-killed-Jesus video

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch Catholic public broadcaster has apologized for and pulled off the air a video clip featuring a song which accuses Jews of plotting to kill Jesus.

The video, which was aired earlier this month at the end of a children’s program on the Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap, or Roman Catholic Church Association, television station, featured a song by Pearl Jozefzoon, about how Jews regarded Jesus. “Do not follow him. He is mad. Break him, break his heart. Kill him. Bury him with criticism, do not love him,” the lyrics said.

The station, known as RKK, pulled the video off the air last week following complaints by the Dutch Israelite Religious Community umbrella organization, or NIK. The Dutch Trouw daily newspaper reported that the broadcaster apologized in a statement for airing the video.

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“Vilifying the Jewish people’s past is to vilify present-day Jews, especially when the audience are youths,” Ruben Vis, the NIK’s secretary and vice president of the European Jewish Congress, told Trouw. He added that “the church has done this for a very long time, and very well and effectively.”

RKK’s broadcast of a Papal address received 4.2 million viewers earlier this year.

The Dutch government currently provides subsidies of $18 million to nine religious broadcasters, including the the Dutch community’s Jewish broadcaster Joodse Omroep and RKK.