The government of Argentina has decided to expel Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denying Catholic bishop, from the country. According to Horacio Verbitsky, a veteran journalist with close ties to the present administration, the decision was taken not only because the British cleric had obtained his visa - and subsequently his status as a permanent resident - on the basis of lies about the real nature of his activities here, but also because of his “despicable antisemitic declarations” which have “attacked the deepest feelings of both the Jewish community and society as a whole.”

The decision to expel the vile Williamson is undoubtedly the right one. However, it must be interpreted in the light of the recent wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agitation in Argentina. One of the principle figures energizing these protests was Luis D’Elía, a prominent social activist well-known for his loyalty to the government of President Fernández de Kirchner and his close relations with her predecessor and husband Néstor Kirchner. He’s also a big fan of present regime in Iran. Broad sectors of progressive opinion sympathetic to the government also looked kindly on recent protests that included the picketing of a luxury hotel supposedly owned by a Jew and a demonstration outside the country’s biggest Jewish community centre. Needless to say, these protests featured the carrying of placards characterizing Israel as a Nazi state and expressing sympathy and support for Hamas.

Giving the boot to the despicable Williamson, a man with no supporters in the country outside a small circle of whack job Catholics, allows the government to show itself to be “doing something” about antisemitism in Argentina without paying the political costs of distancing itself from those of its supporters who have been responsible for either directly stoking it or denying that it exists.