Chilean synagogue vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti and posters

A synagogue in the South American country of Chile was vandalized this past weekend, in the latest burst of antisemitism around the globe.

The facade of Santiago’s century-old Bikur Cholim synagogue was defaced with red paint on the night of Aug. 23, while antisemitic posters were hung on the wall stating, “Jew, your silence is cooperation with Israel’s genocide,” along with an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted with a bullet hole in his forehead.

“Acts of hatred cannot be relativized, normalized or justified under political or ideological slogans: they must be condemned forcefully across the board,” the Jewish Community of Chile wrote on Sunday, the day after the incident, in a post on X. “Vandalism against a sacred place is not an attack against a community, but against the coexistence and peace of the entire country.”

The downtown Santiago synagogue—one of the country’s oldest Jewish places of worship—had been vandalized multiple times following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which triggered the nearly two-year-old war in Gaza.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in Latin America. His left-wing government recalled its ambassador in October 2023 to protest Israel’s “unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza, backed legal proceedings against Jerusalem at the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes and imposed an arms embargo against the Jewish state.

“I am sure that the government in Chile will fight antisemitism in the country!” Israeli Ambassador to Santiago Peleg Lewi wrote Saturday on X, in a post laced with sarcasm.

“In a vile act of hate in Chile, vandals defaced one of Santiago’s oldest synagogues,” the New York-based American Jewish Committee posted Monday on X. “We stand with our partners @ComJudiaChile as Chilean Jews face what has become the dangerous normalization of antisemitism.”

Chile is home to the largest Palestinian population outside the Arab world, with an estimated 500,000 people in the country of 20 million. About 16,000 Jews live in Chile.