Gabriel Boric, the president of Chile, and his administration have taken a “series of harmful moves” toward Jews in the country and Israel, the American Jewish Committee stated on Thursday, expressing “profound concern.”
The Chilean government has revealed “clear anti-Israel bias and blatant disregard for the safety of Chile’s Jewish population,” the AJC said, noting that Santiago recalled three military attachés in Israel and is reportedly considering breaking all ties with the Jewish state soon.
“Since coming into office, Boric has refused to meet with the local Jewish community or address its growing sense of vulnerability stemming from virulent anti-Israel and antisemitic voices in the political, academic and media spheres,” the AJC stated.
“President Boric and his government must immediately cease all actions that could be interpreted as endorsing or implicitly condoning further harassment and violence against the Jewish community,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, stated.
“Any move toward severing diplomatic ties with Israel in the coming days would be a dangerous and damaging precedent, putting Chile’s moral standing and the well-being of the Chilean Jewish community in jeopardy,” he added.
The AJC stated that there have been “repeated” instances of “synagogue vandalism, harassment and surveillance of Jewish institutions and events and attacks on Jewish tourists” in Chile since the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That has amounted to “relentless hatred and harassment,” according to Dina Siegel Van, director of the AJC’s Latino and Latin American affairs institute.
“Chile’s standing as a human-rights champion is on the line,” she said.