San Juan – Largest Newspaper In Puerto Rico Removes Column Blaming Jews For Hurricane Maria Aftermath

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    Cars drive under a partially collapsed utility pole, after the island was hit by Hurricane Maria in September, in Naguabo, Puerto Rico October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin Baez  San Juan – The largest newspaper in Puerto Rico removed from its website an opinion column that blamed Puerto Rico’s economic crisis on the Jews who “control” Wall Street and the U.S. government.

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    The El Nuevo Dia newspaper apologized late last week for publishing on January 8 the column by Wilda Rodríguez titled “What does ‘the Jew’ want with the colony?” but never removed it from the website.

    Rodriguez said in a statement on the newspaper’s website: “I deeply regret that my writing is interpreted as anti-Semitic… I apologize to those who in good faith have felt hurt by my political allusion.” She said she “can understand the psychic reaction of some to the mere use of the Jewish word. But the intention is not to provoke offense, but to contribute to public discussion.”

    A publisher’s note said that the newspaper “apologizes to the Jewish community and to the rest of our audience that has been offended.”

    “We assume our responsibility and we want to be totally emphatic in that we do not promote content that can be interpreted as anti-Semitic,” the publisher also said.

    The column had said, in part: “For Israelis, recognizing Jewish power over the United States is no offense. It is the victory of their diaspora.” She added that: “Jewish itinerary is so loaded with wars and profits that they rarely think about Puerto.”

    Earlier this week the StandWithUs Israel education organization called on the newspaper to remove the column from its website. As of Wednesday, the link for the article takes readers to a page with an error message.

    “We are grateful to the editors for finally deleting it,” StandWithUs CEO and co-founder, Roz Rothstein, said in a statement. She noted that when the column appeared there was “an initial backlash from the Jewish community in Puerto Rico that sparked the two very limited apologies.”


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    3 Comments
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    JackC
    JackC
    6 years ago

    “We are sorry if anyone has taken offense . . .” The usual non-apology apology.

    elyeh
    Noble Member
    elyeh
    6 years ago

    Meanwhile, here is what we hear from Democrats in Washington: “A senior policy adviser to Democratic senator Patty Murray (Wash.) said her office in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions does “not care about anti-Semitism,” according to two people who attended the meeting…”We don’t care about anti-Semitism in this office,” Murray’s senior adviser said. “We care about transgenders, we care about blacks, we care about Hispanics, we care about gays, we care about lesbians, we care about the disabled.”

    “We don’t care about anti-Semitism in this office,” he said.”

    6 years ago

    I was not impressed with Puerto Rico, during two visits there. I urge all Jews to stay away from that miserable island. Their homicide rate is double that of the continental USA, on a per capita basis. An island of 3.5 million people had over 130 homicides last month, compared to NYC which has about 25 per month, and has more than twice the population. Puerto Rico has nobody to blame for itself for its economic mess; because of corruption which is rampant, it defaulted to the tune of 70 billion dollars on government bonds. Then, it had the nerve to want Uncle Sam to bail it out; what chutzpah! As far as I’m concerned, Puerto Rico can vote to become independent. Incidentally, in 1950, Puerto Rican terrorists tried to assassinate President Harry Truman, at the Blair House. One was killed, and one Secret Service guard was killed. In 1954, additional Puerto Rican terrorists shot up the U.S. House of Representatives, screaming “Independence for Puerto Rico”. Years later, Puerto Rican terrorists bombed LaGuardia Airport. Jimmie Carter later commuted the life sentences of the surviving terrorists from 1950, and 1954, and Clinton commuted the sentence of the bombers of LaGuardia Airport.