Open Letter: Wiesenthal Center Counter-Attacks Mayor Daniel Jadue and the President of the Palestinian Community of Chile
January 7, 2021
Buenos Aires and Paris – The Mayor of Recoleta, Chile, Daniel Jadue, was included in the Wiesenthal Centre's "2020 List of Ten Top Antisemites."
The President of the Palestinian Community of Chile, Maurice Khamis, reacted to the Mayor's inclusion through a letter to Chilean media, which only repeats violent anti-Semitic comments on social networks as did Jadue in several interviews.
Their principal argument was that we aim to silence voices that criticize Israel. Our principal criticism is their import of the Middle East conflict into Latin America.
In a television intervention, Jadue argued that "the Simon Wiesenthal Center had a formidable tradition of prosecuting Nazism and today it defends far worse crimes."
Neither Jadue, Khamis or any of their supporters’ comments denied the Mayor`s quotes inserted in our report. There, Jadue denaturalizes Jewish citizens of Chile by accusing them of double loyalty, a charge included in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism.
The definition has been adopted by 35 countries and the number is expanding, as the only international standard to identify whether an act is antisemitic.
In Latin America, it has so far been adopt by Argentina, Uruguay and the Organization of American States. Chile has been invited to adopt it as a means to better protect its Jewish citizens
We are grateful to Mayor Jadue for his acknowlegmented of our mentor, Simon Wiesenthal and as he says, our 'formidable' campaign against Nazism. Our goal is still the same. Hitler's anti-Semitic policy began with Jadue-style arguments and it is thus our duty to denounce him.
His behaviour not only endangers Chilean Jews, but democracy itself. As Simon Wiesenthal argued, “What ever begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews.”
Dr. Ariel Gelblung Dr. Shimon Samuels
Director For Latin America Director for International Relations
For further information, please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158 or Dr. Ariel Gelblung at +54 9 11 49695365.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization numbering over 400.000 members. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO)
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