By: Gal Kovač (Nova24tv)
We have addressed a series of questions to the Jewish Community of Slovenia concerning the well-known anti-Semite and former journalist of the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia, Erik Valenčič. The Jewish Community of Slovenia has been following his activities for 15 years, ever since they detected his strong anti-Semitism, which he also spread through the national media outlet. In their opinion, the entire Slovenian left cannot rid itself of seeing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the eyes of the failed Non-Aligned Movement.
“We have been following the activities of Erik Valenčič for 15 years, ever since he went to the Gaza Strip as a journalist and/or left-wing activist. In particular, his covert anti-Semitism was evident when he worked as a contractor for the RTV web portal – MMC. Here, we are applying the definition of anti-Semitism as adopted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia on the basis of the IHRA definition,” the Jewish Community explained in its introduction.
The Jewish Community then explained that Valenčič’s anti-Semitism is of a particular kind, based on cultural Marxist premises. He sees the conflict between Jews and Palestinians through the prism of the struggle between the exploiting capitalists, which he sees in the occupying Jews, and the exploited, i.e., the Palestinians. “What he fails to see is that we cannot be occupiers on our own land, where we have lived continuously for 3000 years. According to this logic, you Slovenians are the occupiers of Prekmurje and Carinthia. Well, this position is typical of the entire Slovenian left, and they are ideologically supported by the thinking environment of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana,” wrote Dr Igor Vojtic on behalf of the Jewish Community of Slovenia.
We also asked the Jewish Community for a comment on Valenčič’s statement he made to a group of people (we keep their names in the editorial office) that “Jews are scum” and that he had posed in a hotel in Gaza a few years ago with a Russian AK-47 rifle or Kalashnikov. The Jewish Community said it has the picture archived, even though the activist-journalist removed it shortly after it was posted on social media, but only after there was widespread public outrage.
The anti-Semitism of the Slovenian left has its roots in the Non-Aligned Movement
In response to our journalists’ questions, the Jewish Community also touched upon the widespread anti-Semitism on the Slovenian political left. According to them, it originated in the Non-Aligned Movement, which included Yugoslavia. The Slovenian left has clearly not cleaned up its act since our country’s transition to democracy. To this, we can only add the well-known problem of the Moskovič Villa – or the main secretariat of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD), the formal successors of the Communist Party of Slovenia. You can read more about how the Social Democrats got access to the villa without paying for it in some of our other articles.
Anti-Semitism of the Youth Forum – the youth wing of the Social Democrats
The Jewish Community also wrote that it has noticed similar thinking among the SD party’s youth wing, the Youth Forum, which has apparently failed to distance itself from the views of its parent party.
“You will find similar ideas in the SD party’s youth wing. Don’t be surprised by the SD party’s friendship with representatives of the British Labour Party, whose former leader Jeremy Corbyn lost at the polls precisely because of his open anti-Semitism and admiration for Iran. The Slovenian BDS movement (a Palestinian-led movement), which carefully avoids registration under the Societies Act, is another example. It is banned in key EU countries because it is anti-Semitic, but in Slovenia, it is led from Trieste (by Ms Neva Predan) and, in coordination with EU mentors, speaks up every time there is an Israeli military intervention,” says the Jewish Community.
That there is indeed cooperation between the anti-Semitic activist Valenčič and the Youth Forum was already clear from a post in which Luka Goršek, President of the Youth Forum, thanked Valenčič for delivering aggregate to those affected in eastern Ukraine.
Common points of left- and right-wing extremism
In the last part of its response, the Jewish Community explained that left and right political radicalism share a common hatred, albeit differently oriented. “Both extremisms find common points. We are one of them. While the Domžale BaH (the neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour) is acting in a purely racist way, already seen between 1934-1945, and is not so dangerous, the anti-Semitism of the left is more dangerous because it is wrapped in the cellophane of human rights. After the Holocaust, genocide cannot be repeated in the same way. History repeats itself, but not in a straight line, but in spirals. That is why anti-Semitism has found a valve elsewhere, in which case Palestinians are welcome,” wrote the Jewish Community.