Anti-Israel activists vandalized Guatemalan Holocaust museum

The Museum of the Holocaust—Museo del Holocausto in Guatemala City was vandalized this week by pro-Palestinian activists, in a rare incident of antisemitism in the Central American country, the museum’s director said on Thursday.

The vandals spray-painted “Gaza Viva” on the museum’s walls in Guatemala City on Sunday night, and affixed some 18 posters referencing the Gaza Strip.

“With all the problems happening in far-away Guatemala with criminal gangs, it is disturbing how a small group of people is using the excuse of the war in Gaza to target the Jews,” Marco Gonzalez, director of the museum, told JNS on Thursday.

The vandalism took place the night after about two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters held a small demonstration in Guatemala City, he said.

Security cameras caught the images of three vandals just before midnight, the museum director said. No arrests have been made in the case.

The museum, which opened in 2016 and is operated by a Paris-based Christian organization, is the only Holocaust museum in Central America.

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“We stand firm in the face of the international antisemitism that attacked our monument; with the Jewish people and their friends, we say: No to antisemitism disguised as defense of the Palestinians,” said Father Patrick Desbois, founder of the Holocaust research organization Yahad-In Unum, which runs the Museo del Holocausto. “We will not stop teaching the Holocaust to new generations, so that tomorrow Guatemala will be free of hatred and antisemitism.”

Last year, nearly 20,000 people visited the museum.

The strongly pro-Israel Guatemala, whose 18 million residents are split between Catholics and evangelicals, includes Holocaust education in its school curriculum.

Guatemala’s friendship with Israel dates back to the vote by the United Nations General Assembly to create a Jewish state in 1947, when it became the first country in Latin America to recognize the newly-reestablished Israel. It was also the second country to move its embassy to Jerusalem after the United States did so in 2018 during the first administration of President Donald Trump.