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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in Romania has sharply criticized the country's state television network for broadcasting an anti-Semitic Christmas carol.
In a statement Thursday, the embassy called the song "an unacceptable display of anti-Semitism that must be condemned in the strongest, most unequivocal terms."
The Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism in Romania and the Israeli Embassy in Bucharest also criticized TVR3 for broadcasting the carol on Dec. 5. Its lyrics use a pejorative word for Jews, say God should not let them live on Earth, and suggests they should be burned.
During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed in Romania and areas it controlled as an ally of Nazi Germany. Romania only began to commemorate the Holocaust in 2004.
Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean condemned the carol.
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