Last week Chilean Senator Eugenio Tuma was quoted saying that the interior minister of Chile, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, is “an activist and militant for the Israeli cause.” He used similar rhetoric in criticizing Gabriel Zaliasnik, the president of CREJ, the central organization of the Chilean Jewish community.

Not incidentally, Tuma has been urging Chilean leaders to recognize a Palestinian state. Such actions are contrary to the interests of peace in the Middle East. Tuma’s statements represent an odious use of the old anti-Semitic slander tactic of questioning the loyalty of Jewish civic and religious leaders and accusing them of being more loyal to the State of Israel than their own nation.

B’nai B’rith is deeply troubled at the growing number of countries in recent weeks—Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Venezuela—that have unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state. Were Chile to join in this movement, it could endanger the peace process by influencing other Latin American nations to lend their support to this worrisome and premature cause.

Recognition of a Palestinian state can only be achieved as a result of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians on all issues, not as a pre-emptive act.