Published: 15 July 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Antisemitism in Ukraine War is strategic disinformation, in Chile it’s a hook-nosed meme
In hard-hitting language, the Biden administration accused the Russian government of antisemitism and of exploiting Jewish suffering through its claims that its war against Ukraine is a “denazification” operation.
“To serve its predatory ends, the Kremlin is exploiting the suffering and sacrifice of all those who lived through World War II and survived the Holocaust,” the State Department says in a dossier scheduled to appear on its website on Monday morning. “In the process, the Kremlin is detracting from critically important global efforts to combat antisemitism and is instead propagating one of antisemitism’s most insidious forms, Holocaust distortion.”
The dossier, obtained in advance by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, will appear on a dedicated page, “Disarming Disinformation,” devoted to exposing Russian disinformation in its war against Ukraine.
The three-page document emphasises that the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish and lost family to the Holocaust. It includes a photo of Zelensky in a kippah, surrounded by Orthodox Jews, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem during a 2020 visit.
Antisemitism has also been an issue in Chile this week, with Chilean Jews outraged after an alcohol vendor used an image of a hunchbacked, hook-nosed Jew in an advertisement.
Chilean alcohol distributor Arbol Verde published an advert for its discount booze featuring an image of a hook-nosed Jew with a hunchback in Monday’s edition of the Chilean national newspaper, Las Últimas Noticias.
The distasteful ad has raised a furore in the South American country's political system and its 18,000-strong Jewish community.
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Biden administration accuses Russia of antisemitism and exploiting Jewish suffering (JTA)
