MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez claims Israel wants to exterminate Palestinians

The Venezuelan president tells Israel, “hands off Latinamerica”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Friday told the Israeli people not to support their “genocidal” government that killed 1434 Palestinians, a third of them civilians, during the latest war on Gaza.

“The question is not whether the Israelis want to exterminate the Palestinians. They're doing it openly,” Chavez said in an interview with Le Figaro published earlier this week.

“Remember the last Israeli aggression against Gaza. What was that if not genocide?”

Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus, Russia and Spain.

Earlier this month, during a visit to Syria, Chavez said that the Israeli state was created “to impede the unity of the Arab world; to assure the presence of the North American empire in all these lands.”

“What was it if not genocide? ... The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians,” Chavez said, adding that sanctions should have been slapped on Israel.

“The state of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism,” Chavez said. “It's a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people.”

Chavez also called for Israel to “take its hands off Latin America also. Because there the United States empire is trying to turn Colombia ... into the Israel of Latin America”.

Chavez said he recognised Israel's right to exist, as with all countries, but added that the Jewish state must respect the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

Chavez spoke in front of about 10,000 people who gathered at a football stadium in the city of Sweida, some 110 kilometres south of Damascus, near the Jordanian border.

Israel launched on December 27 a massive offensive in Gaza, killing more than 1434 Palestinians, a third of them children, and wounded at least 5300.

During the land, see and air offensive, Israel is accused of having targeted hospitals, schools, mosques and government buildings and destroyed the infrastructure system in Gaza, leaving Palestinians without electricity, gas and power.

Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to reopen all Gaza's border crossings so that people and goods can move freely. Gaza has been under heavy blockade for most of the time since Hamas took power there in June 2007.