There is no good answer about the origins of Jew-hatred, nor about its persistence. We only know that it is the oldest phobia in the world, and that it has been mutating with characteristics that are sometimes religious, others racial, others it is only the presence of Jews that bothers those who hate them. Today, it takes on a clear disguise of anti-Zionism and rejection of the very existence of the State of Israel, to try to hide that it is the updated version of something very, very old.
The name it has acquired, in the broadest sense of the term, is antisemitism, that is, hostility based on a combination of prejudices that include religious, racial, cultural, ethnic, and in a narrower sense, it is a specific form of racist stereotype. It manifests itself in various ways, ranging from individual hatred or discrimination to the collective.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has 31 countries, and in addition to the definition of anti-Semitism, uses – among other examples – “denying Jews their right to self-determination, for example, alleging that the State of Israel (is) racist”, “applying double standards by asking Israel for behavior not expected or required of any other country” and “drawing comparisons between the current policy of Israel and that of the Nazis”.
If I make this clarification, it is to refer to the president of Chile and the use of the word “judeophobia” and not the commonly accepted word “anti-Semitism”, since, although as an attack it only refers to Jews, the truth is that those who hate Jews are often used as an excuse that Jews are not the only Semites, which is true.
Gabriel Boric has the dubious honor of being perhaps the first clearly anti-Jewish president of Chile in the country’s history and perhaps for this reason he was behind an international scandal, since, contradicting all diplomatic practice, he refused to receive the Israeli Ambassador, after was summoned by the government itself for the ceremony of handing over the credential letters, in protest against the actions of the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip.
The discriminatory character was very clear since several ambassadors were cited, including countries like Saudi Arabia, which did not deserve any reproach from a government that, like the Chilean, defines itself as “feminist.”
The international press quickly made it clear that there was a mistake in fact, since there had been no confrontation in that place nor any “innocent child”, but had taken place in the West Bank and as a result of a confrontation with the terrorist group known as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, in the last offensive of these groups against the citizens of Israel, be they Jews, Arabs, others.
Beyond the violation of all diplomatic code and international law, in Boric’s case there is a reiterated and repetitive attitude against Chileans of Jewish origin. Without going any further, when he was a deputy, like other authorities, the Chilean Jewish community sent him a pot of honey in 2019 for Rosh Hashana, the year 5780 of the Jewish calendar. Showing all his intolerance, he mocked asking for the return of supposedly occupied territories. This type of attitude towards the Chilean Jewish community and Israel has been systematically repeated since his time as a student leader, even calling Israel a “murderer state” and traveling to Israel and Palestine, offering support to those who want the state to disappear.
The hopes of a change of attitude once they arrived at La Moneda have faced a wall of contempt, which is doubly serious since it damages a relationship that dates back to 1949 between the two governments, and due to the fact that in Chile the president of the republic is solely responsible for the country’s international relations. Boric did not even moderate his trip to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, since, in an interview with a Spanish TV channel, Israel was used again to argue that the USA should have invited Cuba, since it would be responsible for the situation of the Palestinians for their support of Israel.
The issue does not even exist as a substantive issue, since Chile is home to the largest Palestinian immigration outside the Middle East, relations between the two communities are good, and Chile’s foreign policy recognizes the two-state solution and to the Palestinian Authority government, more than a decade ago.
By the way, there is annoyance in Israel and this aggressive and unwelcome attitude is going to unnecessarily harm Chile, since in the decades of diplomatic relations there is a lot of cooperation between both countries in a variety of areas that include technology and entrepreneurship, as Chile also it has benefited from Israeli advances in medicine, water conservation, agriculture, education and others, where there is a fruitful exchange.
Not only did Boric’s attitude arouse many professional haters on Twitter and other social media; Chileans of Jewish origin were also concerned about feeling discriminated against in their own country. In addition, he could not have chosen a worse time, since it coincides with a trip to debut at the United Nations General Assembly, and to participate in scheduled meetings, no less than in New York, to seek investments for Chile, given the bad timing that the country passes in the economic and other areas.
The Boric thing also coincides with a series of failures in issues such as the economy, security, crime and international relations, which show how poorly prepared they were to lead a country, which explains the very rapid deterioration in the polls, and the great defeat in the plebiscite where the new constitution was rejected.
Within this panorama, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who did not seem to have the track record for the position, has shown that she did not have the merits for such an important distinction, to which is added the coincidence of the resignation of someone with so much power as the head of her team of advisers, which would not have much importance, if it were not for the journalistic complaints that she would have been summoned to testify by the FBI for her closeness to a former Mexican anti-drug Czar, information that has been denied by her and by the government, but we will have to wait to see if that was the reason for his resignation.
Will a more determined attitude appear on the part of the Chilean Jewish community? The question is valid since the community sees itself as small, no more than 18,000 people, and not all of them active. His role is more passive than active, of reaction than action.
There is an Israel-Chile parliamentary group, as well as a presence in the media, but many of them try to hide their links with Israel. It also exists at the level of companies and in the professions and universities, but there has rarely been a collective response, and it is usually limited to acts inside community buildings, and in front of the Israeli Embassy.
Personally, I am a witness to this attitude of indifference when a complaint was filed against the Chilean State before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS, due to the discrimination present in situations within the University of Chile, the oldest in the country. , where, despite the fact that it was not possible to reach the Court, the situations of anti-Semitic discrimination were considered accredited.
I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did, and it’s not the only case in a country that has almost normalized many discriminatory attitudes against Jews.
Hopefully it will serve to react, not only with one more statement, but demanding basic respect for diversity, and this includes Chilean Jews and Israel, starting with the country’s main authority and La Moneda, as a symbol.
For now, just sharing the discomfort and pain it causes, the reappearance of the oldest phobia in the world and the way it clouds the heads of those who hate it.
Nothing good can come of moving from the Middle East to Santiago de Chile, except unbridled passion. For now, the verification of the damage generated by witnessing Judeophobia in La Moneda de Chile.
Boric personally and Chile as a country received congratulations from Hamas, which, as a terrorist group, is hardly a strategy of good behavior towards the rest of the world. It is very difficult for countries to have international prestige and it is sad to see how quickly it can be lost, in addition to representing something that gives various governments a bad name in our part of the world, when the highest authorities of some country allow themselves to transform in state actions what are nothing more than personal phobias.
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