Argentine politician sued after equating Zionists with Nazis and calling for destruction of Jewish state
Argentina’s Jewish community has launched legal action against a far-Left Argentine politician over a series of reported statements which community figures allege to be antisemitic, including an equation of Zionists with Nazis and an assertion that “the genocidal State of Israel” should be “destroyed to rebuild the state of Palestine.”
In tweets in May, Alejandro Bodart, the Secretary General of the Socialist Workers Movement (MST), posted a meme saying “Zionists = Nazis”. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
The Jewish community’s umbrella organisation DAIA said that it was launching legal proceedings because Mr Bodart’s alleged posts on Twitter violated both Argentina’s anti-discrimination laws and the International Definition of Antisemitism and represented an “attack on peaceful, democratic coexistence.”
MST is a Trotskyist faction that is part of a wider far-left grouping which has four deputies in the Argentine parliament.
In his response, Mr Bodart rejected “demands” for him to “ratify or delete” the posts, saying neither he “nor the MST” would “ratify or rectify anything” for the DAIA “or any other Zionist entity.” He went on charge that “seeking to silence” any “critical voice” “reaffirms” the “political conviction” that “authoritarianism is an intrinsic component of Zionism.”
After the legal action was launched, Mr Bodart took to Twitter to thank his supporters “for all the solidarity” given to him “in the face of Zionist threats.” These “seek to silence those of us who denounce the atrocities of the State of Israel,” he claimed. But he would “continue to defend the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people.”
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