Austria’s public broadcaster ORF dismissed an editor after a shocking antisemitic post, highlighting a dramatic spike in anti-Jewish incidents since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Austria’s national broadcaster ORF announced Friday that it has fired one of its editors over a blatantly antisemitic Facebook post that sparked outrage across the country.
The post, which has since been deleted, read: “If I’ve been a victim for 2,000 years, then I should slowly start to think about why that might be.”
ORF Director General Roland Weißmann condemned the statement as “completely unacceptable,” and confirmed that the editor’s contract was immediately terminated with his consent.
Facing backlash, the editor issued an apology: “I deeply regret having written a sentence that I would not have let stand unchallenged from anyone else. It contradicts everything I have stood for in my personal and professional life.”
Jewish community leaders blasted the remark as an unforgivable slur. The Jewish Community of Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia declared that the statement had “crossed a red line” and demanded swift consequences—which ORF has now delivered.
The scandal unfolds against a troubling backdrop. Antisemitism in Austria has soared since Hamas’ brutal October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. Before the attack, authorities recorded just one to two antisemitic incidents daily; after October 7, the average jumped to eight to nine cases per day.
Only last week, a Jewish family in Vienna was attacked by an Uber driver who hurled slurs like “murderers” and “baby killers,” forced them from his car, and physically assaulted the father after discovering they were from Israel.
The ORF editor’s firing is now seen as a litmus test for Austria’s willingness to confront its spiraling wave of antisemitism—a battle that Jewish leaders warn can no longer be ignored.
