Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages appear weekly on the exterior walls of the cultural center, explained Luciano Waldeman, providing examples such as “You are not welcome in Portugal” and “Death to Israel”.
“People are not managing to separate things,” he lamented, emphasizing the center has been targeted by anti-Semitic aggression.
On Monday, the walls of the Jewish cultural center displayed slogans like “Free Gaza” and hateful declarations against Jews, such as “child killers”.
The founder of the Rua da Judiaria center also reported that every two weeks, someone attempts to tear the Star of David from the wall, a six-pointed star Jewish symbol.
Luciano Waldeman mentioned conflicts with members of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) group, a Palestinian-led movement advocating for an end to the Israeli occupation of Gaza and colonization of Palestinian territories.
“I told the man: Look, I respect your opinions, but not the stickers. The man simply wanted to attack me, shouted like a madman saying, ‘You are a Zionist, Zionists like you must die, people like you deserve death,'” he said.
When contacted, BDS denied the accusations and claimed not to be aware of the conflicts, emphasizing it does not tolerate discriminatory acts.
“In accordance with the UN’s definition of racial discrimination, the BDS movement does not tolerate any act or speech that adopts or promotes, among others, anti-black racism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, xenophobia, or homophobia,” the organization stated.
The movement also rejected equating criticism of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism.
“We repudiate any dishonest and dangerous attempt to equate anti-Semitism with what are critiques of the State of Israel and Zionism,” BDS indicated.
Luciano Waldeman said he has received racist insults on Rua da Judiaria, such as “Go back to your land, the man with the mustache was right.”
“There is an explosion of anti-Semitism” in Lisbon, lamented the leader, reminding that Jews and Israelis living in Portugal are not responsible for the conflict in Gaza.
“We are not the soldiers, and we are not the Israeli government making war decisions,” he noted.
He further stated that he has made hundreds of complaints to the Lisbon City Council regarding hate messages, and situations are published on the center’s social media, including Instagram and Facebook, highlighting that nothing has been done so far.
“Nothing is done and things are just getting worse,” warned the leader.
Lusa attempted to contact the Lisbon City Council for clarification, but the municipality did not respond.
The Jewish cultural center, Judiaria of Lisbon, with 600 members, was founded by Luciano Waldeman in 2019 to safeguard, value, and promote the Jewish-Portuguese tangible and intangible heritage.
The conflict in the enclave was triggered by Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, where nearly 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.
In retaliation, Israel launched a vast military operation in the territory, which has resulted in over 63,000 deaths, according to local authorities, and the destruction of almost all the enclave’s infrastructure and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
