Solidarity with Argentine Palestine activists
Stop the criminal prosecution of Alejandro Bodart
On August 12, a criminal trial is scheduled to begin against Alejandro Bodart, a leading member of the International Socialist League and representative in the Buenos Aires assembly. Initiated by the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas/Delegation of Associations or Argentine Israelis (DAIA), the objective of the prosecution is to silence anyone who supports or defends the cause of the Palestinian people.
The solidarity petition demands Bodart’s acquittal and the cessation of all slanderous attacks by those who equate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the effort to silence any criticism of Israeli apartheid. The petition expresses the firm rejection of this and any attempt at political censorship, in defense of the elementary democratic right to freedom of expression.
The basis of the prosecution appears to be two tweets by Bodart. One was on May 11, 2022, when he posted a photo of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, denouncing her murder with the legend “Zionists = Nazis.” The other was days later, on May 15, 2022 on the 74th anniversary of the Nakba, the bloody invasion of Palestine to create the State of Israel, which involved thousands of deaths and the forced exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Bodart tweeted against the “Zionist and genocidal State of Israel” and in defense of the Palestinian cause.
Bodart’s criticism of the crimes and atrocities of Zionism and support of the Palestinian people provoked the criminal lawsuit from the DAIA accusing him of alleged “discrimination.” To warrant this claim, they appealed to the often-repeated fallacy that anti-Zionism is the same as, or synonymous with, anti-Semitism. The legal argument rests on the outrageous claim that raising any political or humanitarian criticism of the state of Israel and its reprehensible actions amounts to religious or ethnic discrimination.
Through the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Zionism promotes a misleading and false definition of anti-Semitism in order to persecute anyone who criticizes Israel, its institutions, provocations, and actions, or those of other Zionist organizations. They appeal to the legitimate sense of horror at the Nazi genocide to use the Jewish identity of the past’s victims to justify today’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
That is why we invite everyone to express their solidarity by following the link and sign the petition:
To Judge Natalia Molina
Court of First Instance for Criminal, Contravention and Misdemeanors No. 8
Before the beginning, on Monday, August 12, of the trial of Alejandro Bodart, left-wing political leader, Buenos Aires deputy (mf) and director of the magazine of the International Socialist League, the undersigned express our rejection of the false accusation of “anti-Semitism” by the DAIA (Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations), in order to silence those who defend the Palestinian cause and silence all criticism of the State of Israel and its policies of terrorism and genocide of the Palestinian people that, to this day, has taken more than 35,000 lives.
Likewise, in defense of the democratic right to freedom of expression, as a basic human right recognized by the national Constitution and the international treaties signed by the Argentine State, we ask the justice system for his acquittal.
Please sign the solidarity petition to support Alejandro Bodart.
Featured image credit: Mohammed Abubakr, modified by Tempest.
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