Rodrigo Custodio is Brazilian born and has lived in New Zealand for around 17 years. He wanted to express his support for the Jewish people, especially after 7 October, and is keen to find some way to support the community. He has written the following message to the community…
We are living in very strange times indeed. Time has passed since the second world war and yet the same patterns, the same lies, the same manipulation and evil. During World War II the Jewish people were used as the fictional enemy to cover up for the failures of the German government. I grew up horrified by the abominable, indescribable, inhumane, unbelievable actions perpetrated against the Jewish people.
But as I grew up, I learned to admire the Jewish people, not because they were victims, rather, because they are victorious. Because the people who suffered unimagineable persecution during the Holocaust, pogroms all over the world, from North Africa to all the corners of the Middle East, rebuilt a nation, not based on hate, but hope.
This same people never asked for Germany to be free from whatever place to the Baltic sea, instead, these people built one of the most advanced countries in the world, Israel, where Arabs and Jews and
Christians, and Druze live in total equality. In fact Jewish Israelis are obliged to serve in the army, while Arabs are not, it is voluntary.
However, the truth does not matter. The facts do not matter. Nothing matters if the reality does not fit the narrative of the “guardians of morality” that stands for the “oppressed” while chanting genocide against the Jewish people.
Strange times indeed. The Jewish people are the guardians of the Bible, a culture that contributed so much to literature, science, economics, medicine and the list goes on.
The Jewish people are again being used as scapegoats, as targets of hate. The defenders of the “oppressed” paint the Zionists as the enemy of the world. Political parties divide and conquer and leverage an “engaged” voting base to accomodate antisemitism which is exploding at an
unprecedented scale in the Western world. Boycott of Israel, that is do not buy from the Jews, attack the Jews, what does this remind you of? German before and during WW2? Maybe, but it is the world now!
I do not have much to offer, but I am sincerely expressing my support to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel. For all my brothers and sisters from the Jewish community, there are people who care, support, admire, and respect you. For anyone with two neurons working, there is no more time to be a silent majority, and sincerely, what starts with the Jewish people never ends with the Jewish people.
Yours sincerely,
Rodrigo Custodio
