I have already written here and here about a violent attack on a street celebration in the city of Buenos Aires of the 61st anniversary of the foundation of Israel and later about the petition signed by various pillars of the Argentine human rights movement calling for the attackers to be released forthwith. On Wednesday last there appeared in Pagina /12 a lengthy article by Osvaldo Bayer justifying his support for the petition and today in the same paper there’s a brief reply from Daniel Goldman.
Continue reading ‘Antisemitism, Human Rights and Acceptable Jews in Buenos Aires’
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, holder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Federico Shuster, Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires and Osvaldo Bayer, a writer regarded as something of a guru on human rights, are just three of the pillars of Argentine progressive and left option who have signed a petition calling for the release of detainees being held in connect with an attack on Jews and others celebrating the 61st anniversary of Israel’s independence in Buenos Aires on May 17th.
Continue reading ‘Argentine Left Calls for Open Season on Misbehaving Jews’
In an excellent post which we have already linked to here, Eve Garrard looks at the rise of the new, cool, politically-correct antisemitism and some possible ways of dealing with it.
Continue reading ‘The New Antisemitism: Sharpening the Debate’
A street event jointly organized by the government of the city of Buenos Aires and the Israeli embassy to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Israel’s foundation was yesterday disrupted by a gang of 15 or 20 people who emerged from a nearby subway station and laid into members of the public with clubs, chains and nunchakus.
Continue reading ‘A New Antisemitic Attack in Buenos Aires’
We have before had cause to mention antisemitic activity in Argentina’s sun baked, dengue ridden province of Chaco and today we have cause to do so again.
Continue reading ‘Kick out the Jews and Foreigners!’
Having made no effort to rein in those of its own supporters who fomented recent antisemitic episodes in Argentina, the government decided to win some cheap brownie points for itself by expelling the Holocaust denier Lefebvrist bishop Richard Williamson from the country.
Continue reading ‘Holocaust Denial Law Mooted in Argentina’
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.”
Continue reading ‘Holocaust Denier Bishop Expelled From Argentina’
It is possible to be very critical of Israel and its actions without being antisemitic; the Spanish writer Jordi Soler proves it in this op-ed published in El País, part of which I translate below. You could argue with some of his points and not everything is phrased in the most judicious manner. Nevertheless, the attempt to offer a harsh critique of the actions of the Israel while simultaneously separating himself from the mile-wide streak of antisemitism in many similar critiques is as noteworthy as it is laudable.
Continue reading ‘The Barbarian Streak in Spain’
Juan Gelman is a distinguished Argentine poet. In 2007 he was awarded the Premio Cervantes, the most important prize awarded for literature in the Spanish language. Gelman devoted a good part of his youth and middle age to participation various revolutionary Peronist organizations and was obliged to flee the country during the 1976 - 1983 military dictatorship. In recent years, as well as his work as a poet, he has devoted himself to fulminating in the press against what he regards as the two principle founts of evil in the world: the United States of America and Israel.
Continue reading ‘Gelman on Antisemitism’
Enrique Krauze is a Mexican writer and, among other roles, the editor of Letras Libres. The following is my translation of part of an op-ed piece by him that appeared this week in El País.
Continue reading ‘Enrique Krauze on Gaza’
As I reported last week, Fatima Hajaig, the Deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa, delivered a speech at a Palestine solidarity rally that could have been scripted by a sub-editor on Der Sturmer. “The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money,” she screamed, “and if Jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else.”
Hajaig has now offered…what, exactly? A clarification? An apology? A restatement of her original remarks?
Continue reading ‘Fatima Hajaig: “I Meant to Say Zionists, Not Jews”’
Descending into the subway station at 125th Street, in the heart of Harlem, on Sunday afternoon, I spied a poster emblazoned with the words “From Harlem to Gaza - We Are All Palestinians.”
Continue reading ‘“We Are All Palestinians”’
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Under the headline “The Hunt Has Begun”, there’s a report here in El País about the rising wave of xenophobia in Italy. It makes particular note of the efforts of the Italian government to vilify Roma people by wildly exaggerating their involvement in crime and by tolerating violence against them.
Continue reading ‘Antisemitism in Argentina III’
As we mentioned here yesterday, on Friday night an armed gang made up of about 15 people took over and vandalized a synagogue in Caracas. While in control of the building they vandalized its library and study rooms, threw objects and scrolls sacred to Jews on the floor, painted antisemitic slogans on the walls and urinated wherever the urge took them.
Continue reading ‘A Black Day for Venezuelan Jews’
“The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money and if Jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else.” These words were spoken by South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Fatima Hajaig, at a Palestinian solidarity rally organized by the Cosatu trade union federation in the town of Lenasia on January 14th.
Continue reading ‘South African Deputy Foreign Minister: “Jewish Money Controls America”’
