Venezuela: Israeli Ambassador Expelled

Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza. President Hugo Chavez has called the attacks a Palestinian “holocaust.”

A few scant hours after Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez referred to the Israeli offensive in Gaza a Palestinian “holocaust.”. the Israeli ambassador has been expelled. The Foreign Ministry has stated Israel's campaign constituted “flagrant violations of International Law” and the use of “state terrorism.” “For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the Ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the Embassy of Israel,” the statement said. In 2006, Chavez threatened to break ties with Israel over its military campaign in Lebanon in a war of words that led both nations to withdraw their envoys. Yesterday, he accused Washington of poisoning the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to destabilize the Middle East and justify U.S.-backed Israeli incursions into Arab countries. “The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza,” Chavez said in televised comments earlier on Tuesday. “The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States.”