A member of the Peruvian Congress has demanded the expulsion of Raji Burhum, a Palestinian propagandist who has engaged in anti-Semitic activities. The legislator also asked the government to explain why the Palestine Liberation Organization office is operating in Lima, the capital city.
According to Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, Latin American Affairs director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the call for Burhum’s expulsion was made by Wilson Benzaquen Rengifo, a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Rosenthal said that Burhum, host and producer of the radio program “Palestinoamericana,” has been described by Peruvian newspapers as “an agent of the PLO” and as “a PLO militant.”
At a press conference in Lima, Deputy Benzaquen Rengifo called Burhum’s activities “subversive,” citing the use of his program on Radio Santa Rosa to offer free copies of anti-Semitic books like “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and “The Worst Enemies of Our People.” He showed journalists a leaflet signed by Burhum, which urged military and police officers to “be careful of Masonry, a Jewish device to enslave you” and which claimed that the “Jew will take over your land and the land of your countrymen.”
This literature was found in the libraries of military installations, but has since been removed as a result of a public outcry, Rosenthal observed
The ADL official reported that Foreign Minister Fernando Schwalb has responded to Benzaquen Rengifo by declaring that the government would not permit discrimination against Jews, since this is violative of the constitution.
The Foreign Minister further stated, according to Rosenthal, that the PLO office “has no diplomatic status and certainly we will not permit it to violate the neutrality of Peru, precisely because we have normal relations with Israel.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior told the press that an investigation has begun in Burhum’s activities, and that he could be subject to expulsion under the country’s immigration laws.
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