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Zelaya Blames Jews and Israel as Scapegoats
In Honduras
By Latin American Herald Tribune staff
NEW YORK -- The tense political stalemate in
Honduras has given rise to expressions of
anti-Semitism and disturbing anti-Israel
conspiracy theories, according to the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "Some
political leaders, pundits and others in
Honduras and Venezuela are saying that
Israel and Jews played a role in the ouster
and intimidation of President Manuel Zelaya
and are in cahoots with the de facto
president, Robert Micheletti," said the ADL.
"The League has released translations of
excerpts from interviews and comments made
by some Honduran political figures and
Venezuelan media commentators showing a
pattern of blaming Jews and Israel for the
political crisis. On September 25, a
commentator on [pro-Zelaya] Radio Globo in
Honduras pointed to Jews and Israelis as
"people that do damage in this country" and
added, "After what I have learned, I ask
myself why, why didn't we let Hitler carry
out his historic mission?""
"From President Zelaya himself down to media
pundits and political activists, there has
been a troubling undercurrent of
anti-Semitism in the situation in Honduras,"
said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National
Director. "We know from history that at
times of turmoil and unrest, Jews are a
convenient scapegoat, and that is happening
now in Honduras, a country that has only a
small Jewish minority."
"The League's has compiled various
statements from Honduran public officials,
commentators and others dating back to July
7, 2009, as well as statements by
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and
pundits on Venezuelan government television
and radio. The statements include:
* False allegations by President Zelaya that
"Israeli mercenaries" are trying to
assassinate him;
* False claims by President Chavez of
Venezuela and other Zelaya supporters that
Israel was the only country in the world to
recognize Micheletti's de facto government;
* Remarks by David Romero, Executive
Director of Radio Globo, claiming that
"officers of the Jewish army" are working in
conspiracy with the Armed Forces in
Honduras. His remarks were reportedly
challenged by Adolfo Facusse, president of
the National Industrial Association in
Tegucigalpa, who stated," Jews are our
cousins and we will not tolerate such
language."
"While we continue to watch events unfolding
in Honduras and hope for a prompt and
peaceful resolution to the country's crisis,
it is imperative for all the parties
involved in the negotiations, including
outside mediators, to keep anti-Semitism out
of the public discourse," said Mr. Foxman.
"We are heartened that some Honduran leaders
have stood up to the anti-Jewish rhetoric,
and hope that more will have the moral
courage to do so."
Out of the country's eight million
inhabitants, there are less than 100 Jewish
families living in Honduras.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913,
is the world's leading organization fighting
anti-Semitism through programs and services
that counteract hatred, prejudice and
bigotry
Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theories
Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas,
September 25, 2009 (report published in
TeleSUR)
It was reported that while in New York,
Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas
gave a press conference in which she alleged
that two Israeli companies supplied the
toxic gases thrown inside the Brazilian
embassy in Tegucigalpa, where President
Manuel Zelaya was staying.
"We have received information that the
chemicals and arms have been supplied by
Alfacom and Intercom companies, owned by an
Israeli … who served as an intermediary with
Israel. Bringing them (into the country) on
a private flight in the last few days."
President Manuel Zelaya, September 24, 2009
While taking refuge in the Brazilian Embassy
in Tegucigalpa, the Spanish publication
ElPais.com interviews President Zelaya. The
anchor asks Presidents Zelaya if he fears
for his life. His answer:
"Yes. They have installed devices that
interfere with the telephone lines. We have
denounced this and it is possible that they
will take it away. It seems that there is a
group, supposedly of Israeli mercenaries
that are putting electronic equipment to
directly impact the embassy."
In an interview with The Miami Herald,
Zelaya says that he sleeping on chairs, and
he claims his throat is sore from toxic
gases and "Israeli mercenaries'' are
torturing him with high-frequency
radiation." "We are being threatened with
death,'' adding that mercenaries were likely
to storm the Brazilian embassy. Zelaya said
that he was being subjected to toxic gases
and radiation that alter his physical and
mental state.
President Hugo Chavez, September 24, 2009
In his address to the UN General Assembly.
President Chavez makes reference to the
Honduras impasse and recounts his
conversation moments earlier with President
Zelaya while taking refuge in the Brazilian
embassy in Tegucigalpa:
"This morning they found in a neighbor's
home [to the Brazilian Embassy], in the roof
of a neighboring home, intercepting
equipment – the President told me – made in
Israel, of the latest generation. Israel
recognized the [Micheletti] de facto
government; I think it is the only
government in the world that has recognized
it. They have equipment directed to
perturbing the mind, trying to cause panic
in the few people that are in the Brazilian
embassy; they are threatening to incursion
in the Brazilian embassy. Do you realize
their cavern-like character? I think it is
the era of Trucutu. It is the era of the
caverns that want to come back here. They
will not come back, they will not come back!
There are repressed people on the streets.
Well, the airports were taken; they are a
people that were taken over. Now, who are
the coup-backers? It is the Honduran
bourgeois, the coup State, the State taken
over by the bourgeois, by the rich. Four or
five very rich families, they are the owners
of the State. We should read Lenin again:
The State and the Revolution, the bourgeois
State. They control all, all: the National
Congress, the Judicial Power, the Military
Forces, the State, and the people on the
streets are massacred."
President Hugo Chavez, July 7, 2009 on
National TV broadcast
"The de facto government in Honduras does
not listen to the world, they do not obey
the OAS and UN Resolutions… it is like
Israel that doesn't obey anyone, that
massacres the Palestinian people, that does
whatever it wants… because they are
supported by the US government."
President Hugo Chavez, July 2, 2009 in the
Program Aló Presidente
"Zelaya said that if this coup continues one
more week he would accuse the world powers
and I will accuse the first power which is
the United States. Because it is like
Israel, the State of Israel, that violates
the Palestinians as they wish. Why do they
do it? Because they are supported. By whom?
The power of the Empire supports them. That
is the same thing that happens with the coup
plotters fascists in Honduras. They have the
support of the extreme right, of CNN, which
is an expression of the media, military,
industrial, financial, terrorist, narco-traffic
apparatus, which unfortunately has its
epicenter in the US. This is a power for the
evil; this is a warning for Obama. The coup
is not against Chavez, the coup is against
Obama."
Aristobulo Isturiz, Vice-President of the
President Hugo Chavez political party PSUV,
July 6, 2009
In a TV interview on VTV, the main
Venezuelan government-owned TV channel,
Isturiz said:
"[The de facto government in Honduras] are
trying to put a matrix of opinion that
Venezuelan and Nicaragua are intervening in
the conflict…this is in part a strategy to
try to insert us in a conflict. The strategy
is similar to that of Israel. Look at the
strategy of Israel. That is how they try to
create a type of conflict of war. Because we
espouse peace. The way of peace is how
movements in Latin America have been able to
flourish in its liberation process. What is
convenient for them is to involve us in a
conflict in Latin America. The US Empire,
and I am not saying that President Obama is,
but the US military complex through the CIA
have their hands in Honduras to try to bring
about instability. These people [coup
plotters] are the spokespeople of the
Empire."
Anti-Semitic Statements
David Romero, Executive Director Radio Globo,
September 25, 2009
In a radio interview regarding his alleged
investigation into the "involvement" of
Israeli officials in the Honduran crisis
Romero said:
"I have asked myself, is there a Honduran,
whether on military uniform or not, capable
of doing what they are doing there - trying
to poison the President of the Republic? I
have realized that they cannot be
accomplices. But when a Honduran finds
someone to help him do evil, I believe he
can do evil.
"There are times when I ask myself if Hitler
was or not correct in finishing with that
race with the famous Holocaust. If there are
people that do damage in this country, they
are Jewish, the Israelis. I want to name,
this afternoon here in Radio Globo, by name
and last name, who are the two officers of
the Jewish army who are working with the
Armed Forces of our country and who are in
charge of carrying out all these conspiracy
activities and undercover actions and
everything else that is happening to the
President of the Republic.
"After what I have learned, I ask myself
why, why didn't we let Hitler carry out his
historic mission. Forgive me for the
grotesque expression. But I ask myself after
I have realized this and many other things.
I believe it should have been fair and valid
to let Hitler finish his historic vision…"
Anti-Zionist Sentiment in Media Outlets
The following articles espouse anti-Zionist
sentiments involving the Honduran crisis:
Vladimir Acosta, on the main National
Venezuelan Radio station (RNV)
July 6, 2009
"The Honduran military is trained in the
military of the School of the Americas,
which is the center of the North American
power, which is a brothel, a military center
of tortures, related to the Mossad, with the
Israeli intelligence, with the CIA, those
are the fundamental pillars of the Honduran
nation…"
Mario Silva, on the main Venezuelan
government TV Station (VTV)
July 7, 2009
"[The UN and the OAS} are there only in
form, in figure, the same way that Israel
occupies Palestine, and all these years have
passed and they still do the same, always
negotiating and [Israel] always repressing
and always killing the Palestinian people."
Hindu Anderi and Richard Peñalver, on the
main National Venezuelan Radio station (RNV)
July 8, 2009
"In Honduras the UN and the OAS [are
involved]. The US and Israel are the only
nations that have stepped over these
organizations... the US and Israel do not
pay attention to the international
institutions to the UN or the OAS… It is
similar to what happened with the Iraqi
invasion, with the bombing of Lebanon in
2006, and more recently in Palestine, they
did not stop the aggression. The evidence is
there the superpower that represents the US
and the Zionist lobby that are above these
institutions."
Joel Ostos, Director of the Communist Party
in Venezuela
July 7, 2009
"…It is worth reflecting that external
forces of the Empire (i.e. the Southern
Command) have their hands in this experiment
[Honduras coup] and it can bear them "good
fruits" if successful…this is a good
laboratory for them to create a repressive
State, an international instigator,
unsubordinated to the international laws,
and a violator of the most basic human
rights in the hemisphere. In other words, to
install a new Israel in Central America…
No to Coup d'etat!
No to imperialism!
No to a New Israel in Cental America!"
Stop Israeli involvement in the repression
of the people in Honduras and Latin America
- Sever Latin American military ties with
Israel
August 28, 2009
Statement in the occasion of the global
Action Day against the Coup in Honduras -
August 28 2009 by Palestinian Grassroots
Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
"As Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid
Wall Campaign we raise our voice and join
with all those that today are protesting the
coup in Honduras, the dictatorship and
repression by Micheletti's regime. As
Palestinians, we know that we and the
Honduran people are part of the same
struggle. We are well aware that this crime
would not have been planned and executed
without the active support of foreign
powers.
Many reports indicate not only involvement
of US intelligence but Israeli military and
intelligence as well. Israel has a long
history supporting the repression of the
people in Latin America. From the Contras in
Nicaragua to the dictatorships in Paraguay,
Guatemala and Chile – Israeli weapons,
intelligence and training have offered
crucial backing. Today, olombia is probably
the biggest recipient of Israeli arms and
training… it is not surprising that today we
have received news about Israeli involvement
in the overthrow of democracy in Honduras.
We are seriously concerned that Israel might
be effectively involved in the coup in
Honduras on several levels:
While the entire American continent has
isolated the current regime in Honduras, the
leader of the coup has announced Israeli
backing of his government. Several
commentators have highlighted that in the
months before the coup, the Israeli embassy
was the site of intense diplomatic movement
with important representatives of the
opposition, including Micheletti.
CODEH has denounced the Micheletti regime
for contracting Israeli commandos and
security companies to train the Honduran
forces in the use of violence against the
demonstrators, including targeted crimes to
sow fear and terror and dismantle the
resistance. They report that security
company personnel is sometimes directly
executing the repression.
This description of repression repeats the
same patterns of attacks faced by the
Palestinian people during the protests
against the Wall and the Israeli occupation.
Israel is engaged in low intensity warfare
against Palestinian communities resisting
the Wall, targeting the entire community as
well as individuals within it. This includes
the violent repression of the
demonstrations, targeted killings of
activists (mainly at the fringes of the
demonstration), collective punishment and
psychological terror.
The expertise provided by the Israeli
military to the Honduran coup has been
acquired from killing, repressing and
ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people.
Indeed, the profits from its arms trade with
Latin America allow its arms industry to
thrive and to maintain the occupation and
colonization of our lands.
Israeli involvement in the coup in Honduras
would be only a logical extension of its
policies. For Israel, a colonial state built
on the expulsion and ongoing repression of
the indigenous population, the rise of
anti-colonial and emancipatory forces
anywhere of the world constitutes a
potential threat to the very paradigm it is
built on. Clearly, Israeli allegiance to and
cooperation with the most right wing US
politics make the involvement in the coup a
political imperative.
The coup and Israeli involvement in it has
implications beyond Honduras, rendering
Israeli diplomatic and military presence a
threat to all Latin American democratic
forces. This coup is not only a brutal act
against the people in Honduras but acts as a
model for a renewed attack on all the people
in Latin America.
We therefore call for all democratic Latin
American countries to take a principled step
against Israeli crimes and violations of
human rights and the historical and current
support to anti-democratic forces and
repressive regimes in Latin America and to:
- End diplomatic relations with Israel
- Expel Israeli military advisors and
'security firms'
- Immediately stop and cancel arms trade
agreements with Israel
The democratic and progressive countries and
their regional alliances such as the ALBA,
MERCOSUR and others, have to take their
commitment to the defense of human rights
and democracy in their region and across the
globe seriously. Israel does not only kill,
torture, imprison and repress the
Palestinian people. Far too many Latin
American's have suffered from Israeli
trained paramilitary and died of Israeli
weapons."
"That was the last time we saw them," says
Pearl Watson, the communal government's
president.
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