Carnival with anti-Semitic floats disowned by Unesco

A BELGIAN carnival has been struck off Unesco’s cultural heritage list after complaints of blatant anti-Semitism, including a float depicting Jews with hooked noses sitting atop piles of money.

The global culture agency struck the Aalst carnival from the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the first time a cultural tradition has ever been taken off the list for racism.

“They can continue to do the festival. We are not opposing that,” said Ernesto Ottone, Unesco’s assistant director-general for culture. “What we don’t want is the brand of Unesco on a festival that for [some] may be humour, but for us is mockery of some communities.”

Mr Ottone said that town officials were warned several times about antiSemitic symbolism in previous versions of the carnival, but failed to take actions that would “draw a line” on what kind of floats and displays were acceptable.

Christoph D’Haese, the mayor of the Flemish-speaking town, called complaints over the carnival “grotesque” land said it was not his job to police the humour of festival goers.

“We are on a very dangerous slippery slope when people will be able to decide what can be laughed at,” he said.

The final decision to remove the carnival from the cultural heritage list was made by a 24-nation committee that meets each year to review nominations.

Claudia Reinprecht, Austria’s ambassador to Unesco, said: “Austrians turned a blind eye some 85 years ago when our Jewish communities were under attack. We will not turn a blind eye again, never again.”