Caracas – A report by the human rights watchdog of the Organization of American States warns of a possible “threat to the life and physical integrity of the Jewish community in Venezuela” due to the Chavez regime’s violations of the political and human rights of its citizens.
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In a lengthy report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accused the government of Venezuela of fostering an atmosphere of “political intolerance” and “a climate hostile to the free exercise of dissenting political participation.”
It blasted the prevailing “citizen insecurity” in the country and saved its harshest criticism for “the prevailing impunity affecting cases of human rights violations,” including in cases of police misconduct, abuse of authority, and even torture.
The Washington-based IACHR is an organ of the Organization of American States that monitors and investigates violations of human rights among the international umbrella’s members.
The information on the situation of the Jewish community comes in part from Venezuelan governmental sources, and in part from concerned Jewish groups such as B’nai B’rith International and The Coalition for Jewish Concerns – Amcha, a US-based network that advocates “on behalf of endangered Jews.”
Beginning in paragraph 780 of the report, which is available online at the IACHR’s Web site, the commission expressed “concern” over “reports claiming that the Jewish community in Venezuela is being especially affected by violent incidents.”
Citing anti-Semitic discourse in media and among state officials, combined with vandalism and an “unexplained” raid by Venezuelan police, the report concludes that such incidents contribute “to creating an atmosphere of intimidation and violence against the Jewish community in Venezuela.
“The foregoing, added to the lack of investigation and sanctioning of those responsible for these acts, including those in which state forces participated, constitutes a threat to the life and physical integrity of the Jewish community in Venezuela.”
According to Amcha’s Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, “the Venezuelan government would have us believe [these incidents] were committed by a bunch of thugs, and this document, written on OAS stationery, says otherwise.”
Amcha has submitted a request to hold additional hearings on the matter, and Herzfeld is hopeful these will take place by October.
The report devotes two long paragraphs to a December 2007 police raid at Caracas’s Hebrew Social, Cultural, and Sports Center, which the Venezuelan state claimed was meant to find “evidence of criminalistic interest related to the alleged commission of a crime against public order, the community, or national security.”
According to the IACHR report, “the information furnished by the State regarding the operation at the Hebrew Center is inadequate to explain the incident that occurred at the institution’s headquarters.”
The report went on to cite the growth in recent years of official and media rhetoric that is “anti-Semitic in tone,” noting a speech delivered by President Hugo Chavez in 2005 that accused “some minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of the same who threw Bolívar out of here and they also crucified him in their way in Santa Marta, there in Colombia,” of “[seizing] the planet’s gold, silver, minerals, water, good land, petroleum, riches, and [concentrating] the riches in a few hands.”
This, combined with similar statements by other government officials, were followed by “expressions with anti-Semitic content in opinion programs and articles, including in government-controlled media or media aligned with the government such as Cadena Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).”
The commission vowed to keep track of steps taken by Venezuelan authorities “to keep such violent acts against the Jewish community in Venezuela from reoccurring, to establish the truth about the incidents, and to punish the guilty.”
Note that Chavez is Hussein’s best and ONLY friend in South America. What the crazed, violent Venezuelan liberals are doing to Jews down south, Hussein wants to do to Jews in the United States.
No emergency meetings at the UN?
Im forgetting ,Chaves is not a Yid, & Venezuela not Israel.
First Amendment be damned . . . If Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn had his way, any journalist who called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a dictator would quickly find himself behind bars.
Penn, appearing on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, defended Chavez during a segment in which he detailed his work with the JP Haitian Relief Organization, which he co-founded.
“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it” said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. “And this is mainstream media, who should — truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”
It was just the beginning of a busy weekend for Penn. When asked on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” about those who question his motives for his humanitarian work in Haiti, he said:
“Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I’m not going to spend a lot of energy on it.”
Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, said the same constitutional protection that applies to journalists also applies to Penn, who can say pretty much anything he wants in the “political arena” — aside from an immediate incitement of violence.
“What he is saying is protected, as wacky and weird as it is,” Napolitano told FoxNews.com. “But the substance of what he’s saying would be absolutely contrary to the First Amendment, which fully protects all political opinions. So if a journalist says Dick Cheney should go to jail, the journalist is privileged to say that.”
“Mr. Penn is calling for a communist-like regime in which journalists who criticize the government are sent to jail because of that criticism,” Napolitano added. “That is utterly un-American and hasn’t happened here since the Civil War.”
Lis Wiehl, a former federal prosecutor and Fox News legal analyst, echoed Napolitano?s comments, saying Penn?s statement is “completely counter” to First Amendment protections.
“Unless you’re yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre, i.e. stirring up immediate violence, you have the right as an American to voice your opinion, even if others (including Penn) disagree,” she wrote FoxNews.com. “And, yes, Penn has the right to voice his opinion as well — that’s the beauty of the First Amendment. And, don’t forget, truth is an absolute defense to any defamation or slander lawsuit.”
According to a study by the Business and Media Institute, news coverage pertaining to Chavez from 1998 to 2006 found the Venezuelan president’s human rights record was mentioned in only 10 percent of stories, and he was described as a leftist in 12 percent of stories.
Napolitano, meanwhile, said Penn apparently prefers “thuggery” to democracy.
“In light of his ignorance of freedom of speech, his wishing rectal cancer on his detractors, and his embracing tyrants, Mr. Penn obviously prefers thuggery to democracy,” he continued. “Were he free to do so, he’d be a tyrant. Now we’ll see if he can get me jailed for saying that!”
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Source, CNN
Chevez thinks Israel controls the worlds oil reserves and gold deposits? He must be on drugs. He should know that it is the Arab Nations, Iran, Russia and Venezuela who control the World’s oil reserves. Russia controls the World’s gold reserves. Israel has the market reserve of potash from the Dead Sea. Oh and lots of sea salt too. No pun intended regarding Lot.