Wiesenthal Center Slams Iranian Antisemitic State Policy Transplantation to Latin America

May 12, 2020

A number of organizations, among them, the so-called "Latin American Iranian Cultural Exchange Center," located in Caracas, Venezuela, which sets a Tehran-style atmosphere. Through such vectors, flyers are circulated with phrases attributed to the Ayatollas Khomeini and Khamenei, along with other fake propaganda attributed, for example, to Pope John Paul II, calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

Typical are the relations drawn between the Coronavirus pandemic and the existence of the Jewish State, identified as "COVID 1948 - The beginning of the Zionist pandemic in the world," with the message that viruses attacking humanity must be destroyed.

This propaganda serves as the backdrop to a solidarity campaign with the Palestinian people on the anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, called in Arabic the "Nakba" or catastrophe.

"Tehran is more concerned with devoting its resources to antisemitic discourse and world terrorism than saving their citizens from the corona plague. The true Iranian death toll is a State secret, as the Islamic Republic sows mayhem and hate not only in Iraq, Syia and Lebanon, but also across the Americas, ” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Center.

Dr. Ariel Gelblung, Director for Latin America, added: “This is one more example of the attempts to import into this region a conflict that is not its own. Iran continues to do so after promoting through its Hezbollah proxies three terrorist attacks: the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992, the headquarters of the Argentine Jewish mutual AMIA and the Alas Chiricanas flight carrying prominent Jewish leaders in Panama, both in July 1994."

For further information, please contact Dr.Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158 or Dr. Ariel Gelblung at +54 9 11 49695365, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates 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 United States. 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).