The Anti-Defamation League called a police raid on Venezuela’s main Jewish social club “inexplicable and unjustifiable.”
The ADL also joined the Venezuelan Jewish community’s call for a formal investigation into the Dec. 1 raid on La Hebraica in Caracas. The raid took place on the eve of a national referendum on 69 constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez.
Members of a police unit that investigates drug trafficking and terrorism reportedly broke the main gate and searched the premises, but made no arrests.
In a letter to Chavez responding to the raid, ADL leaders Abraham Foxman and Glen Lewy wrote, “It is troubling that anti-Semitism continues to be used as a political tool in your country. There is a danger that acts by law enforcement officers, such as the raid on Club Hebraica, may be interpreted by others to justify violence against Jews in Venezuela. We join the Confederaction Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela in their denunciation of the raid as an unjustifiable act against the Venezuelan Jewish community. We join them in their call to investigate these acts which create unnecessary tensions between Venezuelan Jews and the Venezuelan government.”
