Latin Organization claims the Venezuelans are "playing the anti-semitic card"

NACLA, the North American Congress on Latin America, posted an article in which they criticized newspapers and people that claimed that there was no anti- Semitism occuring in Venezuela. Following the attack on the Tiferet Israel synagogue, NACLA shockingly said that the "idea that the sacking of the Caracas synagogue was based purely on anti-semitism has persisted", although they do not think this was the case. In fact they claim that these newspapers are exaggerating the situation, and the government had nothing to do with the attacks. According to them, "Such hyperbolic media coverage exemplitfies the tendency of the U.S. press to portray left- leaning Latin American governments as hot beds of anti- Semitism. Specifically in Venezuela, "where the government has never made an overtly anti- semitic statements." To them this idea has been promototed in three ways: connecting anti-semitic comments made by private citizens to the governement, attacking legitimate criticism of the Israel government, and relying on press statements made by the the ADL or the Simon Wiesenthal Organization. The article went on to claim that Chavez's words are generally warped and taken out of context and that when he mentioned "the descendants that crucified christ" he was not referring to the Jews but rather he was focusing attention unto the unequal distribution of global wealth. The article says that this is just another example in which U.S.- based propagandists are trying to advance their own cause by presenting Latin American governements as anti- semitic.
The writers of this article are clearly misled or in denial about what is occuring in Venezuela. By criticizing the propaganda that actually does stand up for the Jewish community at the time of the crisis, they are making the situation worse for both parties. The Jewish community needs all the support they can get yet this non- profit organization is claiming that they are exaggerating and that there is no situation, even following the extremely anti-semitic attack on the synagogue. Someone should look into this organization and see where there interests actually lie. If their own people are not standing up for them, the situation for the Jews is just bound to get worse.

Link to Original Article; https://nacla.org/node/6106