BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentine Jewish leaders slammed CNN in Spanish contributor Pedro Brieger for justifying the killing of three Israeli teens in a commentary on Argentina television.
“Every occupation provokes resistance of all kinds, peaceful and violent,” said Brieger, who is Jewish, in a commentary that aired Monday on public TV.
It was the same day that the bodies of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach were discovered in a shallow grave in a field near Hebron. Israel has blamed their kidnapping and murders on the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“Every day Israel kidnaps people and also kills people, but this news doesn’t get reported in the international news agencies,” Brieger said. “You have to remember that these three young hostages were in a territory where the United Nations determined that Israelis had to withdraw. Israel is like a Pac-Man eating advancing Palestinian territory.”
Julio Schlosser, the president of the DAIA umbrella of Argentina Jewish groups, called out Brieger for his statements.
“We must condemn attitudes like the journalist Pedro Brieger,” Schlosser said at a demonstration Tuesday night in Buenos Aires organized by the main Jewish Argentine institutions to condemn the teens’ murders. “You can disagree with Israeli policies. But you can’t justify the kidnapping and murder of teens for geopolitical reasons.”
Waldo Wolff, DAIA’s vice president, told Argentine media that Brieger’s comments “made my blood boil.”
Brieger joined the staff of CNN in Spanish two days before making the remarks.
Eduardo Suarez, vice president of CNN in Spanish, said of Brieger, “His opinion represents an important part of Latin America.”
