Venezuela's Chavez, Jewish leaders meet after remarks furore

[cal04]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday met with local Jewish leaders after a top Jewish rights group accused him of making anti-Semitic remarks during a televised Christmas Eve speech. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre slammed Chavez for referring broadly to "minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ" and those who had "grabbed all the wealth."

Venezuela's Jewish community later said it believed the left-wing leader's remarks were not anti-Semitic.
"I think both sides were satisfied because we spoke with honesty," Freddy Pressner, president of the Venezuela Confederation of Israelite Associations, said after the meeting. Chavez was clear in his condemnation of anti-Semitism in a recent speech to the National Assembly, Pressner said.

After the Venezuelan leader made the remarks last month, the Wiesenthal Centre sent him a letter stating that "in your words we find two central arguments of anti-Semitism: the canard of the deicide and the association of Jews with wealth." The government later released a complete transcript of the statement, in which Chavez made a similar remarks about those who betrayed 19th century Venezuelan liberator Simon Bolivar. Chavez and his supporters insisted he had not referred to Jews but instead to the world's rich elites. Pressner said his organisation asked Chavez to closely monitor the transmission of anti-Semitic remarks on state broadcast media.

"We manifested our concern about the wave of anti-Semitic commentary generated by various official media and certain government-affiliated organisations," he said. In a speech on Tuesday night, Chavez described the accusations of anti-Semitism as "part of the international aggression against Venezuela." "We are opposed to any ideology that attacks anyone," he said. The self-styled socialist revolutionary has promised sweeping reforms in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. He often makes blistering attacks on the U.S. government and blames Venezuela's chronic poverty on years of neglect by the country's ruling elites.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6429590&cKey=1138763138000

[Wilms]

1. kick

[Voltaire99]

2. Anything to villify Chavez. (nt)

[Ben Ceremos]

3. The SWC really dropped the ball on this one.

I read the original Spanish-language transcript and I found nothing indicative of the uproar. Now they are forced to eat their knee-jerk reaction. I believe that President Chavez is above racism and that stripe of politic. He may be our last-best hope for social justice and a new system of wealth distribution. Attacks by groups like Wiesenthal are part of a strategy to tarnish and destroy Pres. Chavez' legitimacy. Don't believe the hype. Support Chavez and support yourself.

[moondust]

4. delete

[On the Road]

5. As Much as I Support Chavez,

it certainly sounded like a reference to Jews of the type that have made over the last 1700 years.

I do like Chavez's interpretation, though. It's much more accurate to depict those responsible for Jesus' death as wealthy collaborators than as all Jews.

[nodehopper]

6. if you read the Spanish transcript

it was very clear that he was talking about the wealthy people.

[On the Road]

8. I Take Your Word for it

although a charge of beingChrist-killers would has a lot of historical resonance in a country with a Spanish history.

[Bridget Burke]

7. Reading the remarks in context--even in a good English translation--

Gives a fuller understanding of what Chavez was trying to say.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Chavez opponents are not going to stop looking for charges to hurl

until years after he has left office, when they're hustling to strip away the progress which will have helped the very downtrodden poor in Venezuela.

Two heated SWC + Chavez threads already at D.U., which lost us a genius or two:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2050804#2053041

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2040841#2040913

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. That's because Hugo Chavez killed them and is wearing their skin

as a bathrobe.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Freeprobes! We should have known. May it be a lesson!

Or would that be wingnuttool-skin robes?

Unless the mighty right wing enlists, and waddles off to invade Venezuela, they won't be the last, poor things!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. Hello Clarice!