Antisemitic Jewish caricatures paraded through UNESCO listed Belgian carnival
Spectators visiting the famous Aalst carnival in Belgium were shocked to find the depiction of orthodox Jews with unflattering expressions standing amongst sacks of money, paraded through the town.
The depiction of orthodox Jews with grimacing faces "brought back memories from Nazi propaganda leaflets and publications such as Der Stürmer from the 1930s," outraged spectators at the carnival told The Brussels Times.
Aalst mayor Christoph D'Haese is yet to comment on the incident.
In another part of the parade, a procession resembling the Ku Klux Klan were seen celebrating with town officials, in the presence Flemish nationalist politician Senator Guy D'haeseleer.
http://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/14317/antisemitic-jewish-caricatures-paraded-through-unesco-listed-belgian-carnival
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The mayor of the Belgian city whose annual parade featured puppets of Jews and a rat atop money bags defended the display, telling the local media that “In Aalst it should be allowed.”
Christoph D’Haese told the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper that “it’s not up to the mayor to forbid” such displays, and that “the carnival participants had no sinister intentions.”
Jewish groups and international organizations including the European Commission condemned Sunday’s float at the Aalst Cranaval.
“It is unthinkable that such imagery is being paraded on European streets 70 years after the Holocaust,” a spokesperson from the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, told reporters on Tuesday, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.
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The annual carnival featuring the display was added in 2010 to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. The organization has not replied to numerous critical questions about the Aalst event on social media and on Tuesday had not issued any statement on the subject.
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From their 2013 parade, which actually got a "reprimand" from the joke that is UNSECO:
