IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 124 
Expressing the support of Congress for the Jewish community in Venezuela. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 12, 2009 
Mr. MACK (for himself, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mrs. BONO MACK, Mr. BISHOP of 
Utah, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. LIN-
COLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. 
KIRK, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. ROHR-
ABACHER, Mr. ROONEY, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. WILSON of 
South Carolina, Mr. ROYCE, Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, Mrs. MYRICK, 
Mr. SCHOCK, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. POE of Texas, 
Mr. PENCE, and Mr. WOLF) submitted the following concurrent resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the support of Congress for the Jewish 
community in Venezuela. 
Whereas it is the policy of the United States to protect reli-
gious freedom and to oppose hatred based on religion, 
nationality, race, or ethnicity, including countering anti- 
Semitism, at home and abroad; 
Whereas the Jewish community in Venezuela has been a 
thriving one and the Jewish population included families 
that have lived in the country for over two centuries and 
many survivors of World War II; 
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Whereas according to the Contemporary Global Anti-Semi-
tism Report released by the Department of State’s Office 
of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semi-
tism, ‘‘in Venezuela, President Hugo Cha´vez has publicly 
demonized Israel and utilized stereotypes about Jewish fi-
nancial influence and control, while Venezuela’s govern-
ment-sponsored mass media have become vehicles for 
anti-Semitic discourse’’; 
Whereas according to the 2008 State Department’s Human 
Rights Report on Venezuela, there has been a rise in 
anti-Semitic vandalism, caricatures, intimidations, and 
physical attacks on Jewish institutions from March 2008 
onward; 
Whereas the 2008 International Religious Freedom Report 
released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, 
and Labor, ‘‘[g]overnment-sponsored media outlets [in 
Venezuela] utilized anti-Jewish caricatures and political 
cartoons on several occasions’’; 
Whereas the U.S. Commission on International Religious 
Freedom has placed Venezuela on its Watch List of reli-
gious freedom violators, finding that official state rhetoric 
against the Venezuelan Jewish community created an en-
vironment where Jewish religious leaders and institutions 
are at risk of attack; 
Whereas in December 2007, Jewish leaders in Venezuela and 
across the world condemned an armed police raid, in 
search of weapons, on a Jewish center in Caracas where 
no weapons were found; 
Whereas, on January of 2009, a Caracas synagogue was ran-
sacked and vandalized and the assailants shattered reli-
gious objects, spray-painting ‘‘Jews, get out’’ on the tem-
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•HCON 124 IH 
ple’s walls and stole a computer database containing 
names and addresses of Jews living in Venezuela; 
Whereas the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement 
condemning the January 2009 attack on the synagogue 
stating that ‘‘it is directly related to the atmosphere of 
anti-Jewish intimidation promoted by President Cha´vez 
and his government apparatus’’; 
Whereas in February 2009, assailants threw an explosive at 
a Jewish community center, spreading widespread fear in 
the Jewish community in Venezuela; 
Whereas President Cha´vez stated that ‘‘Israel continues to 
behave like the assassin arm of the government of the 
United States . . . [and that] the government of Israel 
is a government of assassins, government engaged in 
genocide’’; 
Whereas, on January 6, 2009, President Hugo Cha´vez ex-
pelled Israel’s ambassador to Venezuela along with six 
other Israeli diplomats; 
Whereas, on January 14, 2009, Venezuela officially severed 
relations with the State of Israel ending 60 years of dip-
lomatic ties and deepening the vulnerability of Ven-
ezuelan Jews; 
Whereas Navy Admiral James Stavridis, head of U.S. South-
ern Command, testified before the Armed Services Com-
mittee on March 18, 2009, and indicated that ‘‘[t]errorist 
networks are active throughout our hemisphere [and are] 
involved in . . . logistical support for parent organiza-
tions based in the Middle East, such as Hizballah and 
Hamas.’’ Admiral Stavridis further indicated that ‘‘our 
intelligence has demonstrated that pre-operational and 
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•HCON 124 IH 
operational activities have indeed occurred [in the re-
gion]’’; 
Whereas according to the 2007 Country Report on Ter-
rorism, released by the Office of the Coordinator for 
Counterterrorism, ‘‘two self-proclaimed Islamic extremists 
were arrested in October 2006 for placing a pair of pipe 
bombs outside the American Embassy in Caracas.’’; 
Whereas, on June 18, 2008, the Treasury Department’s Of-
fice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it 
was freezing the United States assets of two Ven-
ezuelans, Ghazi Nasr al Din (a Venezuelan diplomat serv-
ing in Lebanon) and Fawzi Kan’an, for providing finan-
cial and other support to Hezbollah; 
Whereas the Department of State’s 2009 International Trav-
el information on Venezuela specifies that since 2006, 
‘‘statistics have shown an alarming 78 percent increase 
in the number of reported kidnappings in Venezuela’’ and 
that kidnappers deal ‘‘with victim’s families directly or 
[sell] the victim to terrorist groups’’; 
Whereas the 2008 Country Report on Terrorism states that 
‘‘Iran and Venezuela continued weekly flights connecting 
Tehran and Damascus with Caracas. Passengers on these 
flights were reportedly subject to only cursory immigra-
tion and customs controls at Simon Bolivar International 
Airport in Caracas.’’; 
Whereas the 2008 Country Report continues that ‘‘Ven-
ezuelan citizenship, identity, and travel documents re-
mained easy to obtain, making Venezuela a potentially 
attractive way station for terrorists. International au-
thorities remained suspicious of the integrity of Ven-
ezuelan documents and their issuance process.’’; 
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Whereas a pattern for terrorism against Jewish communities 
in Latin America already exists, exemplified by the fact 
that on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed 
and 300 were wounded when the Argentine Jewish Mu-
tual Association (AMIA) was bombed in Buenos Aires, 
Argentina; 
Whereas it was reported that contact was made by the Ira-
nian embassy in Buenos Aires to a mosque in Canuelas, 
Argentina, in the days before the AMIA bombing; 
Whereas President Ahmadinejad and President Cha´vez have 
forged a close relationship; 
Whereas according to the Annual Threat Assessment of the 
Director of National Intelligence, released on February 5, 
2008, Venezuela has greatly increased its cooperation 
with Iran; and 
Whereas according to United States intelligence officials, Iran 
possesses the potential to use its close relationship with 
Venezuela to facilitate the smuggling of people, drugs, 
and weapons into the Western Hemisphere through ter-
rorist proxy groups: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) condemns the anti-Semitic acts in Ven-
ezuela; 
(2) expresses its support for all Venezuelan citi-
zens targeted by the Cha´vez government, including 
those in the Jewish community, in their daily strug-
gle for freedom, civil liberties, and the protection of 
the rule of law; 
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(3) express its grave concern regarding the in-
creased collaboration between the Iranian regime, its 
proxy militia Hezbollah, and the Venezuela Govern-
ment, and the ramifications such collaboration will 
have on the Jewish community in Venezuela; 
(4) calls on the Government of Venezuela to 
abide by its international obligations and to protect 
the rights of the Jewish Venezuelan community, ir-
respective of their political views; 
(5) urges that the Government of Venezuela 
takes verifiable steps to ensure the safety of the 
Jewish community in the country; and 
(6) encourages the President and the Secretary 
of State to reach out to democracy and human 
rights activists in Venezuela, and to assist them in 
their efforts in combating anti-Semitism in Ven-
ezuela. 
Æ 
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