Kristallnacht in Caracas

from 'It's Almost Supernatural' blog:

Late Shabbat evening, 15 heavily armed men stormed the main Sephardi Synagogue in Caracas. Torah scrolls were damaged, prayer books ripped apart and anti-Semitic graffiti like ‘death to all’ and ‘Jews get out’ was strewn on the walls. The administrative officers were also broken into and official documents and computer hard drives stolen. The group also called for Jewish people to be expelled from the country.

This attack against the Venezuelan Jewish community is not an isolated incident. Over the last two years anti-Semitism in the country has sky-rocketed as the relationship between Israel and the Venezuelan government has worsened. In particular, since the outbreak of the recent war in Gaza and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, the government controlled media has been spewing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has reported that there is a well-orchestrated campaign on TV, radio, print and Internet media owned by the government, openly questioning Israel’s right to exist. There has also been the publication of such anti-Semitic materials as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and a group of pro-government journalists is urging the population to boycott of businesses owned by Venezuela Jews.

More frightening, a system 'plan of action' was published in a pro-government digital newspaper, Aporrea.org, for mobilizing the society against Venezuela’s Jewish community and Israel. The plan calls for among other things:

• Publicly denouncing by name, the members of powerful Jewish groups in Venezuela, names of their companies and businesses in order to boycott them
  
• Avoiding products, stores, supermarkets, restaurants, and where Kosher food is sold which either belongs or has links with 'Zionist Jews'
  
• Shouting pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans at Jews on the street
  
• Inviting anti-Zionist Jews living in Venezuela to publicly express their disassociation from 'Zionist war crimes' and the imposition of artificial State of Israel on Palestine
  
• Nationalisation of companies, confiscation of properties of those Jews who support the Zionist atrocities of the Nazi-State of Israel, and donate this property to the Palestinian victims of today’s Holocaust
  
• Sending all type of aid to Palestinians including weapons
  
• Organizing an international conference about the creation of the theocratic - Nazi state of Israel as a genocidal European colony, and about the myths and facts of the alleged Jewish Holocaust or Holohoax (a blackmailing industry)
  
• Support the dissolution of the artificial State of Israel

Understandably, many in the small Venezuelan Jewish areas (about 20 000) now fear for their personal safety. One of my good friends who grew up and whose family still live there relayed to me yesterday the level of anxiety his grandmother a Holocaust survivor was feeling. Crying hysterically on the phone after hearing the news of the synagogues desecration, he tried to reconcile her by telling her to remain at home. She replied it is happening all over again. They know where we live, that’s what happened in Germany last time. They took us from our homes. Nowhere is safe now.