Venezuelan Jews: We Live In Fear

Jerusalem – An Israeli Member of the Knesset Parliament (MK), Reserve General Efraim Eitam, who returned this weekend from a secret trip to Venezuela deeply troubled by the state of the Jewish people there, has called to have them brought to Israel.

Mr. Eitam intends to meet shortly with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to report about the dire straits of the Venezuelan Jewish community.

“They’re asking for help,” said Mr. Eitam about the 12,000-strong Jewish community in Venezuela. “They know that they’re living there on borrowed time, but are afraid of showing signs of panic.”

Mr. Eitam’s visit was kept a secret, as the leaders of the Venezuelan Jewish community begged him to keep a low profile and not to speak publicly while he was still on Venezuelan soil. The ruler of Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, considered to be one of the United States’ most bitter enemies, has spoken out strongly against the State of Israel and is Iran’s principal ally in its fight against America.

Mr. Chavez recently hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad twice in Venezuela, sent him a private jet to meet him in New York and supports the Iranian struggle against the United States. Venezuela has large oil and uranium deposits and, according to Western experts, is believed to be the principal supplier of uranium to the Iranian nuclear program. Mr. Chavez’s socialist philosophy has grown more radical with the passage of time, and the Jews of Venezuela are afraid of what lies in store. The Jewish community in Venezuela is considered to be particularly affluent. MK Eitam, who met with leaders of the Jewish community and local rabbis, found a frightened community that had hunkered down and was afraid of what might lie in store.

“They live in secured villas, travel in armored cars, live in secured neighborhoods and in closed compounds and they shiver with fear,” said Mr. Eitam. “They know that it’s just a question of time. The fear is that Chavez will exploit the opportunity if a conflict erupts between Israel and Iran or between Iran and the West and he will either nationalize the Jewish property in his country or take other measures. The level of crime against the rich keeps on rising all the time and since the Jews in Venezuela are affluent, a few of them have already been kidnapped and released in exchange for huge sums of ransom. The flames of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments in Venezuela are fanned all the time and the Jews there are confused and frightened and very much want Israeli help to organize. Some have already evacuated their family members to other places, such as Miami or Panama; every family has an emergency evacuation plan.”

Mr. Eitam discussed with the Jews of Venezuela the possibility of their immigrating to Israel. “They voiced an interest and hoped that the state would help them move to Israel as a community. We’re talking about an exceptionally united and close-knit community. They would very much like to be allowed to build here independent communities and to help them bypass the bureaucracy and perhaps even to buy land and to establish communities or neighborhoods in the way that was done for new immigrants who came to Raanana, Beit Shemesh, Netanya and other places.”

Although Mr. Eitam maintained a low profile while he was in Venezuela, he has filed a formal report to the prime minister urging him to take action. Mr. Eitam’s report indicates that the Jews of Venezuela are not free to express themselves and fear for their lives. Outwardly, they continue to claim that they suffer from no security problems and that they are not afraid, but behind closed doors they say that their fear is mounting by the day and the sense of being threatened becomes more palpable all the time.

Mr. Eitam, in the course of his meetings with the Jewish community leaders, urged them to make a decision: “While this is a regime that was elected by means of democratic elections, the signs are completely otherwise. What looks like a dictatorship, acts like a dictatorship and makes the sounds of a dictatorship is most likely a dictatorship,” said Mr. Eitam.

©The Bulletin 2007