Portuguese lawmaker suggests Israel’s vaccine success due to Jewish money

A Portuguese politician suggested on Twitter Saturday that the success behind Israel’s world-leading vaccination driven is due to Jewish financial domination, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency.

“The Jews, as they dominate the fiscal world, bought and have the vaccines they wanted,” Rodrigo Sousa e Castro, a local lawmaker from Lisbon, wrote.

“It’s historical revenge of sorts. I won’t say anything else before the Zionist ‘bulldogs’ jump,” he added

Shortly after posting the message, Rodrigo Sousa e Castro was repudiated for his post by the country’s second-largest party.

The remarks also provoked outrage, especially from the Israeli embassy in Lisbon, and prompted Sousa e Castro to delete the tweet stating it was “offensive.”

However, Rodrigo Sousa e Castro later appeared to walk back his apology and stated that the original tweet was aimed at “Zionism and its crimes in Palestine” that upset “Zio-Nazis.”

He then posted a photo of himself shaking hands with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

On Wednesday, the Social Democratic Party tabled a draft resolution in Parliament stating “Portugal is seeing the propagation of anti-Semitic discourse with serious insinuations.”

Portugal, with a population of 10 million people, is home to some 3,000 Jews. While anti-Semitic incidents in Portugal are extremely rare, resolutions in parliament condemning anti-Semitism are more so.