Berlusconi's gibes land him in more trouble
Tom Kington
October 5, 2010Silvio Berlusconi ... anti-semitic jokes.
ROME: Already in trouble for a joke about Hitler, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has been condemned for more ''deplorable'' jokes.
Mr Berlusconi was filmed cracking jokes to members of the public which depicted Jews as money-grabbers and used the Italian language's most offensive religious oath.
The jokes were described as ''deplorable'' by the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, which said they offended ''the sentiments of believers and the memory of the six million victims of the Shoah''.
Days after Mr Berlusconi told a youth rally an apparent joke about Adolf Hitler, on September 29 he told supporters a joke about a Jew who charges fellow Jews money to hide in his basement from the Nazis, without telling them the war is over.
In another incident, Mr Berlusconi tells a joke poking fun at an opposition politician. The punchline featured the oath ''Porco Dio'', which translates as ''Pig God''. It is considered one of the most blasphemous Italian phrases, to the extent that a contestant on Italy's Big Brother was ejected for saying it in 2006.
Guardian News & Media
--
Being happy–is it good for the Jews? "Before Professor Dershowitz accused me of being an anti-Semite (news to me), I was a happy person. Since then, I'm still a happy person". –Michael Santomauro