“There is an explosion of anti -Semitism” in Lisbon, lamented the leader of the Jewish Cultural Center, noting that the Jews and Israelites living in Portugal are not responsible for the conflict in Gaza.
The Jewish Cultural Center – Rua da Judiaria, in Lisbon, has been the target of weekly acts of vandalism and hate messages since the beginning of the told Lusa the founder of the association.
On the outer walls of the center, they appear every week stickers and written messages about the boycott of Israel and against the Israelites, said Luciano Waldeman, exemplifying with “You are not welcome to Portugal” or “Death to Israel”.
“People are not being able to separate things,” he lamented, noting that the center has been the target of anti -Semitic aggression.
On Monday they were written on the walls of the Jewish Cultural Center messages such as “Free Gaza”, but also statements of hate to Jews as “Children’s Assassins”.
The founder of Center Rua da Judiaria also reported that every two weeks someone who tries to pull David star from the walla six -pointed Jewish Jewish symbol.
Luciano Waldman said he has had conflicts with people from the boycott group, divestment and sanctions (BDS), a movement led by Palestinians who defends the end of the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the colonization of Palestinian territories.
“I said to the man, Look, I respect his opinions, but the stickers not. Simply man wanted to assault me, he shouted like a crazy to say ‘are Zionist, Zionists as you have to die, people like you deserve death’ and so on,” he said.
Contacted by Lusa, the BDS denied the accusations And he said he was not aware of conflicts, stressing that he does not tolerate discriminatory acts.
“In accordance with the definition of UN racial discrimination, the BDS movement does not tolerate any act or discourse that adopts or promotes, among others, anti-black racism, anti-tail racism, islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, xenophobia or homophobia,” the organization said.
The movement also said it rejects the comparison of criticism of the State of Israel with anti -Semitism.
“We repudiate any, dishonest and dangerous attempt to equate and make anti -Semitism to what are critical to the state of Israel and Zionism,” said BDS.
Luciano Waldman said he has already received racist insults on Jewish Street, exemplifying, “Return to your land, the mustache man was right.”
“There is an explosion of anti -Semitism” in LisbonHe lamented the leader, remembering that the Jews and Israelites living in Portugal are not responsible for the conflict in Gaza.
“We are not the soldiers and we are not the government of Israel who is making decisions about the war,” said the official.
He also said that has already made hundreds of complaints to the Lisbon Chamber About hate messages and situations are published on the center’s social networks, on Instagram, on Facebook, noting that so far nothing has been done.
“Nothing is done and things are just getting worse,” warned the official.
Lusa tried to contact the Lisbon Chamber for clarification, but the municipality did not respond.
