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Austrian far-right politician criticised for antisemitic cartoon

August 21, 2012 15:22

BySandy Rashty, Sandy Rashty

1 min read

A far-right leader is being investigated by Austria’s legal authorities after he posted, on a social networking site, a cartoon image of a Jewish banker profiting from Europe’s financial crises.

Heinz-Christian Strache, a member of Austria’s Freedom Party, was criticised by the head of Vienna’s Jewish community after he uploaded onto his Facebook page a caricature of an overweight banker with a large hooked nose and star of David cufflinks.

Mr Strache denied antisemitism but said he criticised all “greedy bankers”.

He said that critics were seeing stars of David when there were none, were racist if they associated a hooked nose with ethnicity and that he had become a victim of “blind hatred and targeted persecution.”