Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views: Anti semitism on the rise in Venezuela
Venezuela News And Views
Friday, July 28, 2006
Anti semitism on the rise in Venezuela
Tonight I would like just to describe a particularly unsettling ad published in El Nacional (and opposition paper, read by the intellectual elite of Venezuela if anything because it carries the only literature section worth reading in Venezuela). The advertisement below is paid for by the governor’s office of the State of Anzoategui. The governor of said state is Tarek William Saab of Libyan origin. He used to be a defender of Human Rights in Venezuela, cutting a rather strange figure dressed in black with his pale face, he also claims to be a poet. You can see a poem and a picture here.
When Chavez came to office he was of the party and ended up in the National Assembly where among other things he occupied the chair of the foreign relations committee. His tenure was very controversial. He was everywhere Chavez needed him, including threatening anti Chavez protesters in an Oxford visit. His pro Arabic views and misplaced militancy earned him the dubious privilege to be one of the first members of the regime to have a US visa denied. He was lucky enough to be rough handled in April 2002 which he showed as a badge of martyrdom, even though in his case opposition politicians came rapidly to his rescue, dimming somewhat the shine he could have extracted from this event. At any rate he became quickly a main apologist for the regime, in a now professional role for the denial of chavismo Human Rights violations in Venezuela (an example of his work on this organized denial here where the only good Human Rights Organizations are those that see nothing, hear nothing say nothing)
Eventually Chavez sent him to Anzoategui to become the new governor in 2004. He was born in El Tigre, which justified it even though he was more of a Caraqueño than anything else. There his arrogant ways earned him quickly a lot of enemies, mostly within chavismo. Then again his now totally militant zeal so at odd with his past as a human rights activist even brought him into conflict with the large UDO campus authorities where he wanted to change the white letter signs of the name for red letters.
This progressive hysteria goes a long way to explain this sign. Before I explain the text, it is important to stress that this sign is posted by a governor, at tax payer expense money to advertise his own political cause. A Venezuelan Governor has no jurisdiction on foreign policy. This by itself is already a misuse of public funds that should be not only investigated but enough to impeach him. Note also that this add comes at a time when Chavez is touring some unsavory countries and exploiting as much as possible the Middle East situation building an anti Israel and anti US coalition. I do not know whether Chavez will succeed in his effort, but the least we can say is that the government is having more and more trouble to hide its patent anti Semitism.
And now the ad (click the image to enlarge and read the text). Note first that the language is borderline: one cannot really prove it is a clear anti Semitic tract. But experience tells us that the implications of this advertisement are clearly anti Semitic (even though people tend to forget that historically Semites include the Arabs).
You will observe the construct of the advertisement: ALL major Israel faults in the Lebanon are duly listed with dates and numbers. Yet you will not see anything about the Katiushkas shelling Northern Israel. You will not see about the suicide bombers to Israel.
I have underlined or circled the different allusions or direct attacks that abound in this tract. It sickens me to translate it but if anyone sees a purpose in the translation I will do it. Observe how the words holocaust and genocide are carelessly used, voided of any organic comment. Unforgivable!
My conclusion? This is a first act in the road to “educate” the Venezuelan people, who in general ignores everything of the Middle East, in ONLY the Arab/Palestinian point of view. The state is promoting and paying for this education in lies and hate. Note the irony of the logo on the bottom right, "Venezuela belongs to all". Never my take on that logo (on the right of this blog) has been so meaningful!
The Jewish community of Venezuela had better take notice.
posted by Daniel Permalink 12:06 AM
Written from the Venezuelan provinces, this blog started as private letters to my friends overseas, letters narrating the difficult days of the 2002/2003 strike in Venezuela. These letters became this mix of news, comments, pictures of the Venezuelan situation. Unknowingly, I have written the diary of Venezuela slow descent into authoritarianism, the slow erosion of our liberties, the takeover of the country by a military caste, the surrendering of our soul to our inner demons.
Click logo above to go directly to the English language blog. Click here to go to the Spanish language mirror.
Estamos en Venezuela, nunca se sabe. In spite of its Spanish title, an irregular blog about a French student observing Venezuela. Interesting pictures.
General info and discontinued blogs but with good archives
Venezuela Crisis has a visual and textual record "hors pair" of the recent electoral campaign in Venezuela, the first blogger to have covered live a Venezuelan campaign. Seems to be on a resting phase for a few weeks.
Digital papers with Venezuela and LatAm in mind (in Spanish)
There are two major digital papers with forums and all, for a permanent clash between factions. Noticiero Digital is the oldest one and Noticias 24 is giving it a run for tis money.
And a new comer:Venezuela es noticia.
Ciudadania Activa has a large selection of articles on Venezuelan politics and civil rights issues.
Relevant info to expose some of the regime's propaganda and human rights violations
The lies of April
The famous "infamous" video "The revolution will not be televised" has been duly analyzed and shown to be in large measure a crass manipulation. Counter-video in Spanish here, and summary of main points here.
There is a documentary that follows the April 2002 events from the perspective on what Chavez did that April 11, "La Cadena". It is about the forced broadcast made by Chavez to hide the massacre of the pacific march on Miraflores.
The infamous apartheid like system of the Tascon and Maisanta lists
The compilation of various documents from Miguel.
The video "La Lista" and my reviews in English and Spanish by invitation at Hispalibertas.
The El Nacional review of Perez Oramas.
The original video itself can be seen here.
Diverse Human Rights pages
Of course, from Amnesty International to the Human Rights Watch page, without forgetting local organizations such as prestigious COFAVIC, the Venezuelan government comes only too often lacking in its Human Rights record.
OTHER FOLKS WITH VENEZUELA MORE OR LESS IN THEIR MIND (Please send links that should be added here)
And of course to be fair there must be links to pro-Chavez sites. I do pride myself of having been the first opposition blog to have listed pro Chavez links; a situation that has now changed. However extremely rare is the pro Chavez page or blog that links to any of the sites listed above. The readers might draw their own conclusion
Aporrea (Beat up, bruise! as in the imperative mode of the verb; the only interesting one if you can read Spanish. Predicts the future)
And of course the full time propaganda agencies, ALL at tax payer expenses, the National Radio coverage, RNV, and the rather deficient official news agency, ABN (both in Spanish).
Without forgetting the "official" newsletter in English.
Some blogs, more or less sycophantic.
Yosmary, campaigning for Mario Silva, quite something.
Less sycophantic, even critical on occasion Terreno baldio.
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Map of Venezuela to help you locate the different locales mentioned through the blog (click here for a more detailed map)
For the memories. The picture below dates from the epic days of the December 2002/January 2003 "El Paro", when the opposition was strong and decided, and when Chavez was low in polls.
Then came the "misiones" and the worst populist episode of our history. Through pacific protests and strikes we tried to preserve democracy.
History proved us right even if we lost that battle.
Marching toward Hotel Melia, 01/31/03, 5 PM.
Small yellow square under the Pepsi ball is the big stage.
A special thanks to JoAnne Schmitz for the suggestions and help in setting this blog up.
My conclusion? This is a first act in the road to “educate” the Venezuelan people, who in general ignores everything of the Middle East, in ONLY the Arab/Palestinian point of view. The state is promoting and paying for this education in lies and hate. Note the irony of the logo on the bottom right, "Venezuela belongs to all". Never my take on that logo (on the right of this blog) has been so meaningful!
