Arabs Launch Anti-semitic Campaign in Latin America, Turkow Tells Wj Congress

The World Jewish Congress reported here that Arab nations were mounting an anti-Israel campaign in Latin America utilizing anti-Semitic stereotypes, propaganda attributed to the Nazis and falsified napalm bombing photographs to arouse pro-Arab sympathy among South American governments and their peoples. At a seminar sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, American Section, Marc Turkow of Buenos Aires, secretary general of the Latin American Jewish Congress, described how several Arab diplomats and members of the Arab League were spreading anti-Semitic stories in newspapers and magazines “using some of the worst anti-Semitic tracts dating back to Tzarist and Nazi days to discredit both Israel and the Jewish communities.

Turkow displayed two documents dramatizing the nature of the campaign. The first, a photograph appearing in the leftist newspaper “El Mundo” in Buenos Aires on Oct. 13, showed an Egyptian child the victim of Israel’s bombing of civilian sites in Cairo. At a press conference two weeks ago in Buenos Aires, officials of the DAIA showed that the same photograph also appeared in the Syrian Embassy of Buenos Aires’ publication, “Cercano Oriente Hoy” in August 1969, and in the magazine “Liga Arabe” (Arab League) of May 1972. Turkow showed the representatives at the World Jewish Congress meeting, copies of the “El Mundo” and “Cercano Oriente Hoy” publications.

He also displayed two articles from the Oct. issue of “La Nacion” of Guatemala and from a newspaper in Guayaquil, Ecuador, quoting an anti-Semitic statement alleged to have been made by Benjamin Franklin in 1789. According to Gunther Cohen of the Franklin Institute, the document is a forgery “well known” to his organization and “used by the Nazis in their attempts to prove that Mr. Franklin was anti-Semitic.” He stated that during World War II, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and other organizations “exposed the fake document.”

Turkow noted that the Arabs use “non-existent” publishing firms as fronts for their tracts and books. Frequently different editions appear of the most infamous anti-Semitic document, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” An edition appeared in Portuguese in Brazil, where copies of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” have been banned by the government. The WJC official decried these tactics and indicated that Jewish organizations in Latin America were “exposing these Arab lies wherever they appeared.” Turkow reported that in general, South American Jews and Arabs in these countries maintain “friendly relations.” He observed that many conduct commercial transactions and some maintain social contacts.