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Organisers of Belgian parade publish caricatures of Jews invoking antisemitic tropes

The parade courted controversy earlier this year for containing a float showing an Orthodox man holding money and grinning

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Organisers of a Belgian parade have published caricatures of Jews invoking antisemitic tropes which will appear at next year's parade, despite being accused of using anti-Jewish tropes at this year's event.

The Aalst Carnaval courted controversy in March this year for including a float showing an Orthodox man holding money and grinning.

Now the parade has released a set of 150 banners for the 2020 event, which features six different caricatures and 150 different slogans, which the designer claims are not “against Jews”.

Speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws, the designer of the banners - who was identified only by the initials ‘KV’ - said: “There are no bad things on it. It is not about gasification or concentration camps. 

“We don't really laugh directly at Jews either. We mainly focus on UNESCO, it is not against Jews.” 

The parade is part of UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In September, Mayor of Aalst Christoph D'Haese and politician Jean-Jacques De Gucht were summoned to a UNESCO committee meeting in Paris to explain why the float had not been antisemitic. 

UNESCO is currently deliberating over whether to remove the event from its list.

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