Anti-Semitism

The U.S. press tends to portray left-leaning Latin American governments as hotbeds of anti-Semitism. In the case of Venezuela, this storyline has been promoted in three key ways: (1) attributing anti-Semitic acts or statements by private citizens to the government, (2) conflating legitimate criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism, and (3) relying on press statements by U.S.-based Jewish organizations at the expense of Venezuelan Jewish organizations.

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Jewish members of the U.S. Congress opposing a resolution expressing solidarity with the Jewish community in another country is rare, perhaps unprecedented. But it happened last week in the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee — at the urging of the Jewish community of Venezuela.

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Mérida, March 27, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- On Thursday the public prosecutor of Venezuela formally accused 11 people in the attack on one of the Synagogues in Caracas, Tiserat Israel, which took place in January this year.

As the attack occurred just before a constitutional amendment referendum on February 15, it was interpreted as a political act. The 11 people were arrested on February 7 and 8 and consist of eight police officials and three civilians, one of which was a security guard for the synagogue.

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After meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan Israeli Association publicly expressed its appreciation of the government’s prompt condemnation and successful criminal investigation of a recent attack on a Caracas Synagogue.

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Following a weeklong investigation of the burglary and vandalizing of a prominent Caracas synagogue, Venezuelan authorities have arrested eleven suspects whose motive appears to have been robbery, Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami announced Monday.

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President Chávez spoke to Elias Farache, the president of Venezuela’s Israeli Association, and said the recently attacked synagogue in Caracas must be respected.

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Representatives of Venezuela and the United States to the Organization of American States (OAS) shared concerns about last Saturday’s attack on a prominent synagogue in Caracas and accused each other’s governments of playing a role in the incident. Also, the Venezuelan foreign relations minister met with representatives of the Venezuelan Jewish community to offer condolences and to guarantee a successful investigation.

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When the recent accusations of government-sponsored anti-Semitism are thoroughly investigated, it is revealed that in the majority of cases, the strongly anti-imperialist political sentiments of Venezuelan social movements are erroneously conflated with anti-Semitism.

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There are intellectuals among those who signed the January 21 document, “against the anti-Semitic references in official Venezuelan discourse.” But now intellectuals confront a more or less tactical and perverse question: How to prove the anti-Semitism of Hugo Chavez.

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The Venezuelan Jewish community leadership and several major American Jewish groups are accusing the Simon Wiesenthal Center of rushing to judgment by charging Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, with making antisemitic remarks.

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