ACOM sues the columnists Carlos Núñez and Pablo Jofre for incitement to hatred against the Jewish state and for anti-Semite expressions
For the association the columnists have propagated and incited to hatred against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish state greatly exceeding their right to freedom of expression and of information.
To demonize the citizens of a country and the democratic state that represents them as a whole, accusing them in a generalised way of criminal acts is an incitement to hatred and, according to the most accepted definitions, an anti-Semite act.
Among other statements the authors declared: «Israel is the greatest criminal invention of international imperialism» or «Israel has proven to be a criminal machinery; an unfriendly neighbour, a predator regime».
One of the lawsuits has been presented against Carlos Núñez, a relevant member of the communist party in Galicia, in which he occupied the position of councilman. This party, integrated in the orbit of Podemos, is obsessively hostile towards the State of Israel, having taken positions of movements such as Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS), which is exhibiting an activity clearly aimed at discriminating against the Jews in our country, whether they are Israeli or Spanish, and whoever sympathises with them.
On 21 May 2018 Núñez used his radio space in the radio programme «Vigo en la Onda», broadcasted by Radio Voz, to spread a message against the state of the Jews that clearly surpasses the right to freedom of expression with unequivocally anti-Semite statements like: «Israel is the greatest criminal invention of international imperialism», «Only by killing Palestinians can the Palestinian land be conquered», «Jews wanted to wipe Arabs from Palestine», «Jews were reluctant to the union of Europe against fascism and thought that the extermination of ethnic groups and the genocide in Eastern Europe were correct», or «In the Holocaust a million Jews died» and «The goal of the Nazi extermination was not the death of Jews». It is paradigmatic how quickly he passes from talking about Israel to talking about the Jews. As an archetypical example of modern anti-Semitism Israel is presented only as an alibi to show really which are his true targets: the Jews.
Similar facts have occurred with Pablo Jofre Leal, a journalist of Chilean origin who regularly collaborates with Spanish media and who has repeatedly published opinions with the clear intention of stigmatising all persons of Israeli origin, defining Israel as «a terrorist regime, a sinister imitation of the Nazi regime» and even comparing Israel with Goebbels, Himmler and other Nazis or the tactics of the Third Reich. Or with statements like: «Israel is the largest terrorist entity in the world, «one of the most terrorist entities in the history of humanity: the Israeli Zionist regime», «let’s consign the case of the Gaza Strip with a cruel, inhuman, criminal blockade that prevents a minimum development of what is the biggest concentration camp in the world». It is worth remembering that, according to the definition of anti-Semitism of the IHRA, adopted by the European Council, to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination (which is the same as denying the right of Israel to exist), to make comparisons between Israel’s current politics and that of the Nazis, or making the Jews responsible as a collective for actions of the State of Israel are clear examples of anti-Semitism.
ACOM considers that this type of public opinions contributes to the demonization of the State of Israel and of its members, and has as its goal the incitement to hatred against persons for their origin, against what is established in our Constitution and laws.
