Icelandic singer apologizes for anti-Semitic comment but stands by his call to boycott Israel’s hosting of this year’s song contest.
By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News
A well-known pop singer and disc jockey in Iceland has compared Jews to Nazis.
Pall Oskar, known abroad as Paul Oscar, was Iceland’s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997. He is calling on Iceland to pull out of this year’s competition because it is taking place in Israel.
During an interview Tuesday on Icelandic national radio broadcaster, Rás 1, Oskar criticized Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians and then launched an anti-Semitic tirade, according to the English-language Reykjavik Grapevine magazine.
“The reason why the rest of Europe has been virtually silent is that Jews have woven themselves into the fabric of Europe in a very sly way for a very long time. It is not at all hip and cool to be pro-Palestine in Britain,” he is quoted as saying.
‘Jews learned nothing from the Holocaust’
“The tragedy is that Jews learned nothing from the Holocaust. Instead, they have taken up the exact same policy of their worst enemy,” Oskar added.
Later, he apologized in a Facebook post for mixing Israel with the Jewish people.
“I admit unreservedly that I put the Israeli government, the Israeli military, and the Jewish people under the same hat,” he wrote. “I made judgments and generalizations about Jewish people.”
Oskar said that he stood by his criticism of Israel.
“Israel’s government, Israel’s army, and their governance, on the other hand, receive no discount,” he said. “The rest of the comment stands.”
Anti-Israel efforts to move the Eurovision Song Contest out of the Jewish State have not succeeded though initial plans to hold it in Jerusalem were scrapped and the event was moved to Tel Aviv. It is scheduled to take place in mid-May.
Israel earned this year’s hosting rights by virtue of winning last year’s competition.