Wiesenthal Center Protests “Blood Libel” Campaign In Chile

The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage and alarm over the circulation of a visual showing blood dripping from theconductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. The group, currently on Latin American Concert tour, is scheduled to perform next Monday in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

The poster accuses Israel of genocide and being an apartheid state which uses culture and technology to cover up his crimes. It is beingcirculated by an organization that purports to represent the over 300,000 Chileans of Christian Palestinian descent –the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East.

“This is nothing less than a blood libel perpetrated by the Palestinian Federation of Chile which has adopted Hamas-style propaganda indemonizing the Jewish state and her supporters in the Jewish community in Chile,” said Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean,Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Latin American Representative Dr. Ariel Gelblung.

“We expressed our concerns during a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Carolina Valdivia who pointed out to us that Jews andPalestinians have lived peacefully in Chile for generations. But all parties agreed that the situation had changed with the introduction of such vile anti-Jewish hatred,”the SWC officials added.

“Against the backdrop of continuing violence in Gaza orchestrated by Hamas, the vile propaganda spread by the Palestine Federation ofChile--left unchallenged-- could lead to attacks against the Jewish community,” Cooper and Gelblung also said.

Center officials also raised the aggressive BDS campaigns on campuses that have already led to the barring of Israeli academics from the Universityof Chile and other institutions of higher learning. “Many Jewish students have expressed concerns about the environment of intimidation that they often confront on thesecampuses,” they added. Cooper (middle left) and Gelblung (far right) are pictured below with Hernán Mena, Director for Middle East and África, Chilean Foreign Affairs Ministry (far left) and Chilean Deputy Foreign Minister Carolina Valdivia (middle right).

“It is clear that government intervention is now necessary to stop the spread of Hamas-style anti-Semitic propaganda andhatred” Rabbi Cooper and Dr. Gelblung concluded.

The officials also met with US diplomats, the Israelí Ambassador and Jewish community leaders.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. Join the Center onFacebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for newsupdates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the UnitedStates. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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