March 4, 2013

 (JTA) — A popular Irish broadcaster and columnist was censured by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland for calling Israel “the cancer in foreign affairs” on his television program.

The censure last week of Vincent Browne for his remarks last October were spurred by a complaint filed by the Israeli Embassy in Ireland. The broadcasting authority ordered the station to air a live apology to the State of Israel within three weeks.

Browne’s remarks on “Tonight with Vincent Browne” on the TV3 channel “failed to meet the requirement for fair, objective and impartial treatment of news and current affairs,” the authority said, according to the Irish Independent.

The authority did not uphold a claim that the comments on the news analysis, current affairs and politics program were anti-Semitic.

Browne said he would not apologize for the remarks, the Irish Independent reported, saying his criticism was justified, though he agreed his word choice was poor. His show Vincent Browne said in October 2012  a.

“What I resent is the suggestion that because you’re critical of Israel, you’re automatically anti-Semitic. I don’t think that’s acceptable,” he told the newspaper.

On the show, Browne said, “Israel is the cancer in foreign affairs. It polarizes the Islamic community of the world against the rest of the world.

“Unless you deal with the problem of Israel and the Palestinians in that part of the world,” he said, “there’s going to be conflict and disharmony. It’s a massive injustice — they stole the land from the Arabs.”

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