El Fatah, the Palestinian Arab terrorist organization, has emissaries in Latin America who are training young men of Arab origin in “urban” terrorist tactics and have declared war on the local Jewish communities supporting Israel, a Mexican news agency reported from Caracas, Venezuela last month. The report was brought to the attention of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by Sergio Nudelstejer, representative of the American Jewish Committee in Mexico City. He said the news agency “Amex” and its correspondent who sent the story were “completely reliable.”
Mr. Nudelstejer reported however that neither the Israel Embassy in Mexico City nor the one in Caracas had any knowledge of El Fatah activity in Latin America and were unable to confirm the authenticity of the Caracas report. The Mexico City Embassy said it has informed the Israel Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem of the news agency report and has alerted other Israeli embassies in Latin America.
Mr. Nudelstejer provided the JTA with a translation of the “Amex” dispatch which described an interview with an El Fatah leader at a secret hideout in Caracas. The alleged commando claimed that his group was responsible for the Dec. 26 attack on an El Al airliner at Athens in which an Israeli passenger was killed. He said the attack was not a simple act of terrorism but an operation to eliminate an Israeli agent and was successful, despite the arrest of the two Arab terrorists, the report said. (Credit for the Athens attack was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Beirut-based group that is a rival of El Fatah.)
According to the news agency, El Fatah groups were training in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America to “act against Hebrew elements” who send money to Israel to purchase weapons to wipe out the Palestinians. The alleged El Fatah leader also reportedly said that another purpose was to “unmask” Israeli agents who have infiltrated public, military and economic activities in Latin America.
Mr. Nudelstejer said the Arab League had increased its propaganda activities in Mexico which included dissemination of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a 19th Century anti-Semitic forgery. He said portions of the “Protocols” have been published, along with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish material, in “Criterio Continental,” a Mexican magazine with a circulation of about 15,000 which reaches Government officials, clergymen and business executives.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
