Catholic Bishops slam Israeli TV show that Mocks Jesus and Mary

A comic pokes fun at Jesus and Our Lady, saying he wants to "deny Christianity" since Christians, he alleges, "deny the Holocaust."

JERUSALEM (AsiaNews) - The Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land slammed the "repulsive attacks" on Jesus Christ and Our Lady on an Israeli TV show. For them the incident is a sign of the growing intolerance and hatred towards other faiths, best exemplified by a recent incident in which copies of the New Testament were publicly burnt in the yard of a synagogue in Or Yehuda.

In the TV show which ran at the start of the week Israeli humorist Yair Shlein said that since Christians "deny the Holocaust, then I want to deny Christianity" in order "to teach a lesson".

In the show a speaker in a series of sarcastic punch lines said that Jesus died at 40 "because he was fat" and "could not have walked on water"in the Sea of Galilee and that Mary"was impregnated by a school friend".

In their statement the bishops said that for years Christians have done "a lot to stop some manifestations of anti-Semitism and now Christians in Israel have to find themselves victimised by a low profile" form of Christophobia.

The prelates thanked the various Christian communities in the Holy Land as well as the Muslim community for their solidarity and urged Israeli authorities to take "the appropriate measures against such unacceptable offence and its perpetrators."