The anti-Semitic content of Egypt's Al-Faraeen television channel prompted the European branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center over the weekend to urge French and German TV stations to cease "cooperation agreements" with the broadcaster.

Dr. Shimon Samuels, Wiesenthal's director for international relations in Europe, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the German Association of Public Broadcasting Corporations (ARD) "has a responsibility to cancel it, if there is an agreement."

The Wiesenthal Center wrote in a letter sent to Peter Boudgoust, chairman of ARD, that "according to MEMRI, (the Middle East Media Research Institute), the 'Egyptian TV channel Al-Faraeen's (The Pharaohs') director, Tawfiq Okasha, on December 20, 2009, announced a cooperation agreement with the German state television network, to take effect in January 2010,' and that the German network is to produce four programs for Al-Faraeen."

Samuel's letter listed examples of Al-Faraeen broadcasts that meet the European Union's definition of anti-Semitism. He wrote that "a weekly show of Al-Faraeen's titled In Articulate Hebrew features the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an 'authentic Jewish plan for world domination through the Jewish state, money and prostitution...'"

The Wiesenthal Center urged Boudgoust "to investigate and cancel any such association made with any of your nine regional corporations, two satellite channels and your Deutsche Welle international service. Any such relationship would place Germany in violation of its commitments to OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and EU provisions against the dissemination of anti-Semitism and any form of hate."

Boudgoust could not be reached for a comment over the weekend.

A similar letter was sent to the the French CSA (Higher Audiovisual Council). The Wiesenthal Center had previously convinced the CSA "to end transmission of Hizbullah Al-Manar TV and Hamas Al-Aksa TV via EUTELSAT."

While Germany has banned Al-Manar broadcasts in hotels, private residences can still receive its broadcasts. Hizbullah remains a legal political organization in Germany. The German Interior Ministry has described Al-Manar "as agitational hate propaganda directed against Israel's right to exist."

Critics in Germany, however, view the Interior Ministry as not meeting its goal of stopping anti-Semitic incitement against Israel by completely prohibiting Al-Manar in the country.

Samuels concluded his letter to ARD Chairman Boudgoust by noting that "Jihadi television stations have no place in Germany, for the incitement of the viewers - whether domestically or internationally through your global transmissions - will inflame and radicalize a new generation of terrorists that will inevitably come home to roost."

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