Anti-Semitic Image on Facebook Page of Head of the FPÖ

Alert DateAugust 19, 2012 Country: Austria Address: Vienna General Type: Racist discourse Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-semitism
Groups affected / Interested in: Religious minorities Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Internet Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Internet
Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin N/A
Victims Gender N/A
Victims Age N/A
Victims Number N/A
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin Austrian
Perpetrator Gender Male
Perpetrator Age 36-45
Perpetrators Number 1
Extremist/Organised Group Violence No

The head of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), Christian Strache, has published an anti-Semitic cartoon on his Facebook page. The cartoon is a well-known caricature critizising the current banking system. It shows a fat man sitting in front of a table loaded with food, next to him a subservient man and on the other side of the table (where there is no food) a very skinny man: the bank fed by the government and the starving people. However, small details of the cartoon on the Facebook page of the FPÖ-head were changed: The banker in the cartoon has a slightly different nose and on his cuff links there are tine Stars of David. These details refer to stereotypical associations of a Jew.

After the Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" published this incident the district attorney initiated legal proceedings because of incitement to hatred. Meanwhile Strache posted on Facebook that he flatly rejects any form of anti-Semitism.

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