MEXICO 2007
Thirty-six
antisemitic incidents were recorded in Mexico in 2007, eight fewer than in
2006. As in previous years, most were offensive e-mails, anti-Zionist articles
in the media and graffiti.
THE
JEWISH COMMUNITY
There are
approximately 40,000 Jews in Mexico out of a population of 104 million. Most
live in the capital Mexico City and its environs, while the rest inhabit the
cities of Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana and Cancun.
Jewish
immigrants to the country formed communities according to their place of
origin, a pattern which has persisted until today. There are four Orthodox
communities: Alianza Monte Sinai (formed by descendants of immigrants from
Damascus, Syria); the Ashkenazi Community (formed by descendants of Eastern and
Central European immigrants); the Maguen David Community (formed by descendants
of immigrants from Aleppo, Syria); and the Sephardic Community (formed by
descendants of immigrants from Greece Turkey and the Balkans), and two
Conservative ones: Beth Israel (formed by English speaking immigrants, mainly
Americans) and Bet El.
The
Jewish Central Committee of Mexico (JCCM) represents the community in relations
with the government and with Jewish communities around the world. Tribuna
Israelita (www.tribuna.org.mx ), its
public opinion and analysis agency, promotes an ongoing dialogue with opinion
leaders and implements joint programs with national organizations aimed at
sensitizing people to and counteracting antisemitic and racist phenomena.
High enrolment in Jewish day schools (more than 90 percent)
and a very low intermarriage rate (7 percent) characterize the community, which
provides a wide range of welfare, religious, and educational services. A
variety of monthly publications reflect a range of political, cultural, and
ideological views.
antisemitic
activity
Thirty-six
incidents were reported in Mexico in 2007, eight fewer than in 2006. As in
previous years, most were offensive e-mails, anti-Zionist articles in the media
and graffiti.
Graffiti, Threats and Insults
Swastikas
were commonly sighted in various neighborhoods with a large Jewish population, and
sometimes near Jewish institutions. They appeared, for example, in April at a
shopping center in Santa Fe, in June, outside a mall in Polanco, and in October,
in a telephone booth in Tecamachalco. In September, they were reported outside
the Monte Sinai School, which also received a false bomb threat on September 1.
Persons
passing near synagogues and community centers, shouted slogans such as “Damn
Jews,” “Heil Hitler” and “Soap” on five occasions. Posters advertising the comedy
My Hebrew Shiva (produced by a Mexican filmmaker about the Jewish
post-funeral ritual of sitting shiva) were defaced with the slogans “Heil
Hitler” and “Achtung Jude.”
Demonstrations and Other Events
Antisemitic and anti-Zionist motifs
were observed at several demonstrations. For example, extreme right activists from
the Guardia Nacional Mexicana and Ultimo Reducto protesting on April 12 against
a 2007 local abortion law outside Mexico City’s Chamber of Deputies handed out
fliers with antisemitic canards. Inter alia, they blamed the Jews for Mexico’s problems and signed off with the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler.”
In June, the BINACOM (a
bi-national association that brings together educators and students of
communication studies from San Diego County and the Baja California Norte
region of Mexico) organized “Corto Creativo 07,” a student short film festival, in Tijuana, on the Mexico-California border. During the event a
Holocaust denial film, The Great Taboo, was screened. In it Holocaust
deniers Germar Rudolf, Ernst Zündel (see ASW 2006),
and Bradley Smith (who participated in the festival) discussed revisionist
theory, free speech, Zionism and 9/11. The organizers received several
complaints, including from some American Jewish organizations and from Tribuna
Israelita. After the festival BINACOM issued a statement, condemning Smith’s
use of the conference “to legitimize his attempts to deny the crimes of the
Nazis against Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, political leftists and other groups…
There can be no debate when one side deliberately falsifies information in the
support of ideology…”
Media,
Internet and Literature
Although
media coverage of the local Jewish community is generally responsible, in May, Gazeta
de Saltillo (newspaper of the municipal archive of Saltillo, the capital of
the northern state of Coahuila), published an article by Prof. Elisa Gutierrez
Galindo of Northeast Autonomous University entitled “The Jews of the New Spain.” Galindo claimed, inter alia, that Judaism was materialistic and
messianic, and that Jews were exclusivist in that they sought to destroy the established
order since it was not based on Jewish law. Further, she asserted, the
acceptance of Jews in Mexico in the 16th century might be considered the
“perdition of the New Spain [pre-independence name].” Tribuna Israelita
contacted the editor and published a response written by historian Dr. Alice
Backal in the following issue.
Some
mainstream publications manifested extreme anti-Israel views, portraying Israel as the perpetual aggressor, an illegal occupant, and insensitive to the needs of the
Palestinian people. For example:
·
“In the sight of the
whole world, the West allows an occupation to persist which is not only illegal
and responsible for humanitarian crimes but which nowadays constitutes an
example of blatant, active racism… the Arab inhabitants of occupied Palestine
are treated as second-class human beings by a country that carries out territorial
robbery, demographic adjustments, ethnic cleansing, revenge against civilians
and, in general, one of the most criminal dirty wars perpetrated against
civilians since the middle of the 20th century” (Editorial de la Fuente, daily left-wing La Jornada, March 23).
·
“The
occupation of these territories by the Israelis, which has continued until
today, is... contrary to international legality and is translated into savagery
against hundred of thousands Palestinians… Paradoxically, Israel’s victory over
its neighbors has generated, in the last 40 years, a disastrous balance for the
Jewish state itself: as the protagonist of an illegal occupation, it has experimented
with a process of moral degradation that has caused it to be transformed into a
repressive, terrorist and racist state, hated by its neighbors and always
threatened by terrorist attacks” (Editorial de la Fuente, “40 años de barbarie,” La Jornada, June 5).
A few articles referred negatively to the Holocaust. Most stated
that the Jewish people had not learned anything from their suffering and had
become victimizers. The Holocaust –they argued − served to justify Israel’s existence and behavior. For example:
- “Genocide… was committed
in the Nazi extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau, [and is
what] the Israeli army is doing today against the Palestinian and Lebanese
peoples” (Ma. Estela Saravia, “La Columna de la Independencia,” Uno más Uno [minor mainstream paper], Jan. 7).
- “… you still believe the Jewish lies
that Hitler was a child killer and committed genocide. [Those who commit] genocide
were and are the Zionists from the White House and from Israel” (José Carlos Robles, “A pleno sol,” Sol de Mediodía [mainstream evening
paper published in Mexico City; part of the Soles chain] March 29).
- “Knowing the intentions of
Israeli militarism to engage in another punitive action against the (Gaza) Strip makes the world aware that it is witnessing an atrocity that is not very
different from the one perpetrated by the German Nazis against the
population of the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw. The principal difference
between that situation and the present one is not of essence but of rhythm
and magnitude: today a slower –and more hypocritical − extermination
disguised as an Israeli “self-defense” action, is being perpetrated
against a much larger population than that of that unfortunate part of the
Polish capital” (Editorial de la Fuente, La Jornada, Sept. 21).
Jewish
institutions, as well as some individuals, were the target of antisemitic mail:
In September, the following antisemitic message was posted on Tribuna
Israelita’s website: “How nice the Jews are! I love how they justify Zionism
making references to the Holocaust. I love how they kill hundreds of innocent
people in the Middle East by claiming a piece of land that never belonged to
them. I love this people who since the Renaissance have been considered
intolerant and usurers. I hope this century we will find another Hitler.”
In
October, a Jewish man from an advertising firm received the following e-mail: “Jews
out of Mexico! Go back to raising camels in the desert. It is only a matter of
time; as soon as things get difficult in Mexico, the cockroaches (your people)
will escape first.”
Street stalls selling
antisemitic books such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein
Kampf were detected in downtown Mexico City; local and
international copyright laws forbid the publication of the latter in Mexico. The Protocols was also
found in three coffee-book shops. When approached by Tribuna Israelita to halt
sales of the book, they claimed they were unaware of the content and removed
them from their stocks.
Responses to Racism and Antisemitism
As in
previous years, in June and December Tribuna Israelita, in cooperation with,
the International Institute of Leadership organized the program
"Coexistence in the Holy Land," a study trip to Israel to promote
mutual understanding and clarify many of the myths regarding the Jewish state.
In
May, the book The Last Survivor, by Aron Gilbert, the son of a Holocaust
survivor who arrived in Mexico in 1947, was presented at various venues,
including universities and the international Guadalajara book fair.
An
anti-discrimination law, outlawing all types of discrimination based, among
others, on ethnic or national origin and referring specifically to
antisemitism, was approved in the State of Mexico in June. The law was adopted
thanks to cooperation between the Jewish community and legislators and the
Judicial Department of Governor Enrique Peña Nieto.
Tribuna Israelita
participated in the international book fair held in the cities of Monterrey (October) and Guadalajara (November-December). Following the BINACOM student
film festival (see above), it also promoted the photo exhibition One day in
the Warsaw Ghetto and organized a dialogue with a Holocaust survivor at the
Universidad de las Californias, which was attended by many students.
