The Israeli embassy in the Netherlands has made a complaint about a satirical song in a television show hosted by popular comedian Sanne Wallis de Vries, accusing the broadcaster of anti-semitism, Dutch media said on Tuesday.

The song, performed by Martine Sandifort, was a pastiche on Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest winner Toy and focused on current events in the Middle East. The accompanying video includes images of the ongoing protests in Gaza.

Broadcaster BNN-Vara said in a response that the video is not about the Jewish community but about current Israeli policy, NOS reported.

‘The sections about world leaders and dollars have nothing to do with Nazi thought, they are a reference to the current tight links between Israel/Netanyahu and president Trump, in both a political and an economic sense,’ the broadcaster said.

The Amsterdam-based Israel documentation and information centre CIDI has also criticised the programme on Twitter, describing the song as full of ‘hilarious’ jokes about Jews and money.

Hoi @SanneWallis, we hoorden je parodie op het songfestivalnummer van Israel. Vol met “hilarische” grapjes over Joden en geld enzo. Lachen!

We hebben de tekst even nagekeken. Inzoomen om de opmerkingen te zien, het zijn er nogal veel! @BNNVARA pic.twitter.com/dbnLcp6Ija

— CIDI (@CIDI_nieuws) May 20, 2018

The row made the Israeli media, with newspaper Haaretz describing the new lyrics as a ‘harsh attack’ on Israel and its treatment of Palestinians.

The Times of Israel refers to the fact that BNN-Vara is a public broadcaster in its report on the row, under the headline ‘Dutch state TV accused of anti-Semitism in Israeli Eurovision song spoof’.

While the parody starts off criticising Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, it ‘devolves into anti-Semitic cliches about Jews and money’, the paper said.