"Anti-Semitism in Latin America" Statement by Michael Schneider, WJC Secretary General

05 January 2010

Let me begin by telling you what you already know – and that is that the gates of Caracas are open to Iran, allowing Ahmadinejad to send out his emissaries from a hospitable and safe haven from which they can fan out and do their mischief in every corner of the Latin American continent.

And there they are relatively free to foment anti-Israel hatred, to spread anti-Semitism, and to radicalize the next generation of Arabs whose parents have for decades lived side by side with Jews in harmony.

And at present we cannot lock those Caracas gates. The Venezuelan/Iranian axis is impervious to any pressures. 

The battle ground to oppose Iran’s wider goals rests in New York at the United Nations and in Geneva. And in both cities we did manage to ensure that there was a walkout in Geneva during Ahmadinejad’s speech and that in New York he spoke to a virtually empty hall. This was done by sustained diplomacy by a coalition of the major American Jewish organizations and the World Jewish Congress.

Iran appears to have three main goals in Latin America:

• To garner support among Governments to assume hostile positions against Israel.
• To expand its influence as a major player on the continent.
• To radicalize the next generation of Moslems in a region where Jewish-Moslem and Jewish Arab relations have been tranquil for many decades.

In Latin America we face two issues:

• A broad continental problem
• And considering the fears of the Venezuelan Jewish community we have a narrower issue that we cannot ignore

On a continental level we shall have to tighten some loose ends regarding coordination and to focus on two countries that might be able to persuade Venezuela to take some action. We cannot separate him from Ahmadinejad on Israel. We may be able to do so on the issue of anti-Semitism, the spread of hate messages and possible terrorist attacks.

When we met Chavez about a year ago and expressed our concerns he proposed that there should be a joint statement by himself, and Presidents Lula and Kirchner to condemn all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia and, indeed a document was drawn up by us and duly signed by all three. We need to explore whether it would be possible for Governments to follow the United States administrations’ practice of appointing a Special Envoy to combat and monitor anti-Semitism and here I would add ”and other forms of racism, xenophobia and racial discrimination.

While we cannot stop Chavez from hosting Iran we may be able to persuade him to insist that Iranian emissaries should abide by his own commitment in writing. We may also be able to urge Brazil and Argentina to press him to hold to his own commitment under the tripartite agreement they all signed.

We need to create coalitions with moderate agencies of other faiths in order to reach out to those young Arabs who are the target of the Iranian initiative to radicalize them.

We need to press police forces to take strong measures in monitoring activities of Iranians on temporary resident permits where there is a reason for suspicion.

We need to establish a coordinated system to provide materials on the web that counter the hate mail that regularly appears in ever greater frequency. We must encourage those organizations who are already working on the web to share their products. I know there is an issue over copyright but we must solve this problem and find a solution.

Notwithstanding that laws regarding freedom of speech differ from country to country, we expect that, at the very least, Governments should firmly, publicly and officially condemn hate demonstrations.

We need to gather and harness the Jewish communities’ academics and intellectuals to address negative attitudes of their students regarding Israel and Jews in general and to create a continental strategy for doing so.

We need to engage the most influential members of the Jewish business community, many of them enjoying relations with the highest levels of Government, even in smaller communities to become more engaged in the serious issues being faced by the continental Jewish community and to advocate on its behalf where necessary. We need to harness their considerable experience and wisdom into channels of Jewish diplomacy. From this group we need to create a body of advisers and enablers.

And most important of all, we need to help Israel in any way we can in order to defend its reputation, to refute disinformation, and to support its legitimacy as a Jewish State.

Regarding the Jews of Venezuela and in coordination with the official Jewish community we need to continue monitoring of any anti-Semitic statements emanating from Chavez’ senior officials, We to bring to the Government’s attention any serious hate mail appearing on the web. We need to continue to ensure that the official line of liaison hat we established between CAIV and the Government is maintained. And we need to report regularly to US Congressmen as to the status of the Jewish community. While Chavez attacks the US administration he is more wary of Congress which he sees as being more “of the people” than the Government.