brazil 2004

 

As in previous years, antisemitic activity in Brazil was expressed mainly in abusive behavior, graffiti and propaganda, particularly of left-wing organizations. Well-known cartoonist Carlos Latuff continued to demonize Jews.

 

THE JEWISH COMMMUNITY

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, has a Jewish population of about 110,000, out of a total population of over 160 million inhabitants. Most Jews live in Brazil’s major cities – Río de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre – but some live in small communities on the shores of the Amazon River and in other remote locations, such as Bahia, Belém and Manaus.

The central body representing all the Jewish federations and communities in Brazil is the Confederação Israelita do Brasil (CONIB), founded in 1951. This umbrella organization includes 200 groups engaged in promoting Jewish and Zionist activities, as well as Jewish education, culture and charity. Much Jewish activity takes place in the Hebraica Club in São Paulo and in privately owned social clubs. The University of São Paulo offers Judaic studies. Brazilian Jews publish a number of magazines, newspapers and journals in Portuguese. The economic downturn has severely affected the fortunes of Brazilian Jews, as it has all Brazilians.

 

ANTISEMITIC AND RACIST GROUPS

A number of very small fascist/neo-Nazi parties are active in Brazil. Both Ação Integralista Brasileira (Brazilian Integralist Action – AIB), which also uses other names, and Cruzada de Renovação Nacional, are fascist organizations which have been active since the 1930s. The Partido Nacionalista Revolucionário Brasileiro (PNRB) operates, under leader Armando Zanine, Jr., in Rio de Janeiro, while Partido Brasileiro Nacional Socialista is based in São Paulo. Partido Nacional Socialista is a clandestine organization operating in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where a number of neo-Nazi groups are active.

Two separatist racist groups emerged in 2004, both in southern Brazil. O Sul é o Meu País (The South Is My Country), located in Santa Catarina, aspires to build a separate homeland in the south of Brazil, including possibly the state of São Paulo. A key condition for setting up this state would be the expulsion of all Nordestinos (poor migrants from the north east) as well as Jews. They seek validation for their demands in the works of Holocaust denier Siegfried Ellwanger (see below) and of the neo-Nazi National Alliance (see US). Republica do Pampa Gaúcho, located in Rio Grande do Sul, call for the creation of a republic of the ‘Gaúcho Pampa’ in the states of southern Brazil. They have adopted a flag that reproduces the symbol of the Third Reich together with the Cruzeiro do Sul (constellation of stars in the Brazilian flag). In his book Vai Nascer um Novo País: a República do Pampa Gaúcho (A New Land Will Be Born: The Republic of the Gaúcho Pampa), Irton Marx, leader of the group, described, in 1990, the creation of “a land in the south of Brazil without blacks and Jews.”

More than 30 carecas (roughly, skinhead) groups are active in Brazil, mainly in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Like their counterparts in Europe, many of them are neo-Nazi, antisemitic and xenophobic, and almost all are homophobic (for more details, see ASW 2001/2).

Many of Brazil’s left-wing organizations are extremely anti-American, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel; some are also antisemitic. They include Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, Circulo Bolivariano de São Paulo, Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado and Partido Comunista do Brasil (see also below).

 

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITY

An increase in antisemitic activity was observed in 2004 compared to previous years.

 

Violence, Vandalism, Threats and Insults

Several violent incidents were recorded. A skull-capped member of the religious Zionist youth movement was attacked by a bicycle rider as he was entering the Herziliya/Bar-Ilan College in the Tijuca section of Rio de Janeiro, in May. The rider shouted “Racist Jew!” The youth suffered no injuries. In addition, stones were thrown at the synagogue in Santos (city of the coast of São Paulo) in March, smashing windows.

There were several reports of threats, harassment and insults. Following her election, on 18 October, to the city council of Rio de Janeiro, Professor Teresa Bergher (Partido da Frente Liberal – PFL), a member of the Jewish community, received a letter at her office filled with swastikas and antisemitic inscriptions. In addition, one of the street placards of her political campaign was burned in the Barra da Tijuca (neighborhood of a large Christian Lebanese community) of Rio de Janeiro.

A phone message received by Rabbi Henry Sobel of São Paulo on 19 November included curses and insults and a threat to bomb the Congregação Israelita Paulista over which he presides.

On 15 December, one of the bathrooms of the Catholic Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), was covered with antisemitic graffiti, praising Nazism and calling for the slaughter of the Jews. The local Jewish community, Federação Israelita do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FIERJ), demanded that PUC-Rio investigate the incident. FIERJ and PUC-Rio agreed to hold seminars on antisemitism and the Holocaust as part of an educational campaign to curb such acts.

At Tijuca Pre-University in Rio de Janeiro, a fist fight broke out after a student stood up during a lesson dealing with the Middle East conflict, and shouted, “Are there any Jews here?” When there was no reply, he continued, “I hate Jews.” A Jewish student in the class jumped the offender, who later apologized.

Antisemitic graffiti and swastikas appeared on several occasions near synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish institutions. For example, on 27 July antisemitic graffiti was discovered on gravestones and walls of the Jewish cemetery in Curitiba (state of Paraná). The daubings included swastikas, praise for Hitler and the inscription “Death to the Jews.” On 19 September, a Nazi flag was observed near the synagogue in the town of Erechim (state of Rio Grande do Sul). According to the newspaper Zero Hora, the slogans “I’ll kill Jews” and “Glory to the Third Reich” were written on the flag in English. The police opened an investigation.

On 19 September, a swastika and the words “Hitler is alive, die the punks” were found near the local Jewish community center in Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. On 10–11 October large swastikas and the slogan, in English, “Kill all Jews” appeared on the walls of the Beit Yaakov Synagogue in the city of Campinas, state of São Paulo. Since neo-Nazis in Brazil normally use Portuguese in their graffiti, the incident was regarded as rather strange, and might indicate that Arab immigrants were involved. B’nai B’rith Campinas sent a photo to the police and demanded an investigation. The act was condemned on 13 October by the Municipal Assembly of the City of Campinas and the Municipal Assembly of São Paulo. The incident was also reported and condemned by TV Globo of Campinas as well as by the printed press such as Diario de S. Paulo, Jornal da Tarde and Folha de S. Paulo.

A swastika was discovered on 24 October, on the wall of a historic 17th century synagogue in the north-east city of Recife, the first synagogue built in South America.

 

Propaganda

Left-Wing

Anti-Zionist, anti-American and antisemitic motifs appeared in criticism of the Israeli government by extreme left-wing party representatives. For example, the Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian People of the radical leftist Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado (PSTU) distributed leaflets in front of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, on 18 June, and ran a stand showing ‘atrocities’ in Palestine. The leaflets invited people to a rally to be held on 30 June in front of the US consulate under the banner “Zionists out of Palestine, Americans out of Iraq.” The committee declared that other far left parties such as the Partido da Causa Operaria (PCO − Workers Party), the Partido Comunista Revolucionario (organ: A Verdade), the Marxist-Leninist Partido Comunista Marxista Leninista (organ: Inverta), and militants of the Movimento dos Sem-Teto (Movement of the Homeless), as well as various local unions, would take part in the demonstration.

The PSTU, the main organizer of the rally, claims that an end to the State of Israel is the only possible solution to the “oppression of Palestine,” and justifies suicide attacks against Israelis. It should be noted that the Committee for Solidarity organized a rally in 2002 in front of the Israeli consulate in Rio de Janeiro during which the facade of the Brazilian Israelite Center and the Beth El Synagogue were damaged by participants, who claimed they had nothing against Jews but against “Israeli Nazis and the Israeli government, as well as Zionists and all those Jews who supported them.”

In 2003 a PSTU flag, with the words “The End of Israel”, was raised at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre (23−28 Jan.). On 28 August 2004, the party site (http://www.pstu.org.br/) quoted an article from Boletim do Fórum Social of Israeli journalist and peace activist Uri Avneri, of the Gush Shalom organization, in order to support its argument blaming Israel for the Palestinian–Israeli conflict; it also referred to the US as “a fascist state that relies on Jewish finance.”

The PSTU’s platform for the September 8 municipal elections expressed unconditional support for the Palestinian cause, using terms such as “the Nazi Sharon.” The online journal Opinião socialista (http://www.pstu.org.br/) often posts articles calling for an end to Israel. For example, it was claimed in February 2003 that 6 million Jews were going to be settled on Palestinian land.

A leaflet prepared by ‘Joseph Weil’, who claims to be a Jew, was distributed among militants of Brazil’s leftist parties. ‘Weil’ speaks of the end of the State of Israel, stating, inter alia, that, “high officials in the Israeli military compare the tactics they use against the Palestinians to those employed by the Nazis against the Warsaw ghetto”; “the end of the conflict has to go through the end of the State of Israel and the establishment of a secular Palestine”; “the State of Israel is a theocratic and racist state.”

 

Right-Wing

The antisemitic neo-Nazi group Valhalla claimed on their site (Sul88) that they had spread leaflets “against Negros, Jews and homosexuals” in several cities in the states of Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The site was blocked by the Interior Ministry. The group said they would move their site, and that they would continue to discuss Israel and the Jews. A line from one of their songs says: “We will walk on the destroyed synagogues.” According to one of the leaders, although they appear to be a mixture, Jews are a race because they have similar genes and can be identified as Jews, and “Jews don’t respect anything, only their disgusting money and their own stinking religion.”

 

Islamic/Arab

On August 28, the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores – CUT, the main organization of Brazilian workers, adopted the Palestinian cause at its 10th plenary assembly. Speakers demonized Israeli soldiers and the State of Israel. For example, they claimed that “Israelis entered Palestinian hospitals to murder wounded people,” and ambulances sent to save the injured were systematically obstructed. It was announced that a new umbrella organization, Coordenação Nacional, composed of Islamic, Arab and local Brazilian groups, would be formed to campaign for the Palestinians.

 

Media/Books

As in recent years, articles with antisemitic references appeared in the daily mainstream press. Many revealed antisemitic views under cover of anti-Israel statements. Others tried to minimize the extent of antisemitism and other Jewish concerns. For example, the liberal Gazeta de Vitoria (21 May), the main newspaper in the state of Espirito Santo, printed an article by journalist Jose Augusto de Carvalho entitled “Judeus Nazistas” (Nazi Jews), which said, inter alia: “Ariel Sharon has managed to transform Israel into a replica of Nazi Germany, without any substantial difference between them.” A gross caricature of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with a skull cap and a Star of David, appeared in the newspaper liberal Jornal do Comercio (15 July; the city of Recife). It was accompanied by a caption characterizing the State of Israel, its government and its people as murderers.

An article minimizing antisemitism appeared in the traditional newspaper Journal do Brasil (http://online. terra. com. br) on 1 July. In “Antisemitism and Anti-Christianity”, attorney Ives Gandra da Silva Martins claimed that “the Catholic Church was attacked [in the media] more than Jews and Muslims were” but the media always considered the latter incidents to be discrimination, while those directed against Catholics were viewed mainly in the context of freedom of expression.

Following the murder of a large number of homeless in the streets of São Paulo during the first half of the year, the well known Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff (see ASW 2003/4), published a cartoon on 27 July, on the site of Independent Media Center (http://www.midiaindependente.org/es/red) accusing the Jews of their murder, despite suspicions of the São Paulo police that the perpetrators were neo-Nazis. Latuff’s cartoon, which shows the bottom half of an Israeli solider with a baton dripping with blood, a distorted Star of David and two homeless dying on the ground, reads: “The end of the hungry in São Paulo. Nazism has passed. The swastika now has a different form.”

Later, Latuff denied authorship of the cartoon, claiming it was a forgery, but his explanations were not convincing − see http://www.deolhonamidia.org.br/Comentarios/mostraComentario.asp?tID=132; http://www.deolhonamidia.org.br/Comentarios/mostraComentario.asp?tID=134.

Negative references to Jews were noted also in books. A Dicionario de folclore para estudantes) (Dictionary of Folklore for Students), by Rúbia Lóssio, appeared on 6 June on the site: http://www.soutomayor.eti.br/Mario/paginas/dic/1/htm. Defining the terms ‘Jew’ and ‘Wandering Jew’, the text reads: “In popular usage, a Jew is a bad person who can harm other people”; “a Jew drinks the blood of other people”; “a Jew eats the flesh of a new baby.” The author, a member of staff of the conservative Institute of Social Research of the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation, is the coordinator of Folklore Studies. He wrote the work in collaboration with writer Mario Souto Maior.

A new leftist oriented electronic journal named A Criação (The Creation), published an article, by editor, literature professor and attorney Fabio de Oliveira Ribeiro, who asserted that Nazism and Judaism were similar, and made the following comparisons: “Judaism=Nazism”; “God’s Chosen People=a superior race”; “the Promised Land=Lebensraum for the German nation”; “Moses, the leader of the Jewish people to the Promised Land=Hitler, the infallible leader.”

 

Holocaust Denial

After his books were banned (see below), Holocaust denier Siegfried Ellwanger Castan began using the Internet in May 2004 (see ASW 2003/4). When his site (www.revision.com.br) was closed by a court order on the grounds that it was racist, he opened another one under the name Revisao5 to enable distribution of works from his publishing house Revisão Editora. He also used this site to claim that Revisão Editora was being persecuted by “Judaic-Zionist agents in collaboration with the crazy Brazilian courts of justice” and to assert that he was trying to “restore the right of freedom of expression” by inviting “illustrious visitors to the site to acquire books from Revisão Editora before Jews burn them in a public square.” Posing as a supporter of Castan, he wrote: “Cooperate with Revisão Editora by presenting your friends with our [sic] books that represent the truth in a study over several decades.”

In the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, a physician, Evaldo Assumpção argued, on 21 October on the TV program Em Debate, that the images of Jewish victims in the Holocaust were dummies. After Marx Golgher, member of the council of the Minas Gerais Jewish Federation, called in to protest, the head of the program, Father Jose Candido, invited him to discuss the issue a week later with Pastor Hoffman of the Lutheran Church. Hoffman tried during the program to belittle the significance of the Holocaust by minimizing the number of victims.

 

Responses to antisemitism and racism

Siegfried Ellwanger Castan was convicted on 1 September in a Porto Alegre court for selling from a stand books from his publishing house that had been declared racist and banned in 1996. His sentence of one year and nine months imprisonment was ultimately commuted to community service.

On 24 August, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, condemned antisemitic and racist acts of violence against the Jewish community in France. In August 2004 President Lula also signed the World Jewish Congress’s petition condemning antisemitism. The document was endorsed in Brasilia during a meeting between Lula and Rabbi Israel Singer, executive director of the World Jewish Congress. It was the first time ever that a Brazilian president had signed an official declaration condemning antisemitism, noted the liberal Congregação Israelita Paulista’s Rabbi Henry Sobel, who was present at the meeting.