Gay Jewish Man Attacked in Chile

A gay Jewish Chilean man was attacked Thursday by three men carrying neo-Nazi symbols, suffering razor cuts on his legs and arms, The Jerusalem Post reports.

The man, Jorge Arce, was walking in a Santiago park while wearing a T-shirt featuring Israel's flag. The attackers called him "murderer," then punched him in the face and began slashing him with a razor, reports the Post, citing Spanish-language Chilean site El Mostrador.

"I had 40 stitches on my arm. Some will be forever. Just for being Jewish. The pain overwhelms me," Arce told the Movement for Integration and Homosexual Liberation, a Chilean advocacy group. The group called the attack "an anti-Semitic and homophobic aggression."

"We repudiate this attack of hate, which deserves all legal and social sanction," the organization said on its website. "Of course we will support the legal actions that the Jewish community decides to initiate, who have always supported and shown solidarity with the victims of homophobia."

Comunidad Judia de Chile, a group representing Chilean Jews, also issued a statement, saying, "We want to ensure that the Jewish Community of Chile is permanently concerned so that such acts do not occur in Chile and will take all measures to safeguard the rights of Jews and all minorities who may feel threatened by hate crimes."

Arce is an activist with Hod Jews for Diversity, an LGBT-supportive Jewish organization.