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The Argentinean authorities closed the offices and newspaper of the ultra-nationalist Partido Nuevo Orden Social Patriótico, following a complaint of antisemitism. The other extreme nationalist movement, Partido Nuevo Triunfo, continues to function, mainly as an Internet site. Several violent antisemitic incidents were recorded, mostly in the first half of the year.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
With about 200,000 Jews out of a total population of over 35 million, Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America. The great majority of Jews live in Buenos Aires and its environs; however, there are also sizable communities in Rosario, C órdoba, and Santa Fe. Most Argentinean Jews are the descendants of nineteenth and twentieth century immigrants from Europe and the Middle East.
The Jewish community maintains many educational, cultural and religious institutions, including a Hebrew and a Yiddish press, publishing houses and an educational system from kindergarten through university. The leading Jewish organization is DAIA (Delegaci ón de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas), which represents communities and organizations to the authorities and is responsible for safeguarding the rights of members. AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) is the main organization of the Jewish community. The Vaad ha-Kehilot is the umbrella organization of all the communities in the provinces.
In recent years the economic situation of Jews in Argentina has deteriorated severely, particularly in the wake of the collapse of Jewish banks, and this has deleteriously affected Jewish activity (see ASW 1998/9).
EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS
The two main ultra-right-wing nationalist movements in Argentina are Partido Nuevo Triunfo and Partido Nuevo Orden Social Patri ótico. Partido Nuevo Triunfo (New Triumph Party – PNT), led by Alejandro Biondini, evolved from an Internet publication. His present site, Ciudad Libertad de Opinión (City of Freedom of Opinion), in Spanish and various other European languages, is a portal to all the neo-Nazi organizations in Latin America and Europe, and provides links to 300 extreme right-wing sites around the world. The site has a news agency, Kalki (Biondini’s nickname). PNT’s activities both on the Internet and as a party violate the anti-discrimination law forbidding incitement to racism (see below).
The party was active during the year distributing propaganda promoting Biondini’s candidature in the 2003 presidential elections. It also held a meeting in a Buenos Aires hotel in September 2000, the proceedings of which were transmitted by the commercial TV channel Cr ónica, including the speech of Chilean neo-Nazi leader Alexis López Tapia.
Partido Nuevo Orden Social Patri ótico (New Order Social Patriotic Party – PNOSP), led by Alejandro Ivan Franze, has a relatively inactive site on the Internet. The police closed their headquarters as well as their newspaper Nuestra será la Victoria (the last issue appeared in March 2000), and they were forbidden to publish leaflets. They now meet privately and participate in demonstrations and parades of other groups, but have no organized activities of their own. Because of the anti-discrimination law, Franze refers only indirectly to Jews, but he and his followers are known neo-Nazis and covert antisemites.
ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES
Several violent antisemitic incidents were recorded, mostly in the first half of the year. One serious attack occurred in October, shortly after the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada: a 14-year-old boy’s teeth were broken by a man who tried to enter a synagogue in suburban Buenos Aires. He then threw stones at the synagogue until arrested by police. In May, graves were desecrated in the Jewish cemetery in the northern city of Posadas. Seven youngsters were detained in this connection.
Besides neo-Nazi and antisemitic graffiti found on Jewish institutions and in public places, personal insults and discrimination made up a large proportion of antisemitic incidents. Antisemitic groups were behind some of them. For example, during a visit to Argentina in February, a commercial delegation from Israel was harassed by Argentinean neo-Nazis in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia.
In another case a popular Argentinean singer, Ricardo Iorio, told the Rolling Stone pop music magazine: “If you are not Jewish you shouldn’t sing [the Hebrew song] ‘Hava Nagila’ and if you are Jewish you shouldn’t sing the Argentinean anthem.” V íctor Ramos, president of INADI (National Anti-discrimination Institute), promised to institute legal proceedings against the singer and against the magazine.
In August, ex-banker Ra úl Moneta of the city of Mendoza accused Jewish journalists of attacking him in the press because he was a Catholic. According to the DAIA, which lodged a complaint before a federal judge in Mendoza, he used antisemitic expressions which violated the anti-discrimination law.
Several incidents were recorded in the soccer stadium. In June, bars of soap (used as a symbol to defame the Jews and the memory of the Holocaust) were thrown onto the field by supporters of Defensores de Belgrano during a match against the Atlanta team, which has no Jewish players, but is from a Jewish neighborhood. Another match was suspended by the referee after fans sang antisemitic songs. A youth was also detained there for wearing a chain with a swastika.
The following traditionalist nationalist publications sometimes contain latent or indirect antisemitism:
- Patria Argentina. Nationalist monthly edited by El
ías Rafiaa; distributed nationally since the mid-1980s; represents nationalist groups from different provinces.
Cabildo. Closed during the democratic regime of President Raúl Alfonsín in the 1980s but resumed publication in 1999; refers to Jews as the “anti-discriminators,” because they are allegedly behind the anti-discrimination law.
El Fortín. Journal of the fascist Evolian Study Center; edited by Marcos Ghio; appears irregularly.
El Mosquito. Local publication of the upper-class Vicente López municipality of Buenos Aires province. Because of the paper’s influential connections, the municipality ensures that its pro-Islamist and virulently anti-Israel propaganda appear in all the local newspapers.
PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY
A public opinion survey on attitudes toward Jews and the Holocaust in Argentina, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee and AMIA, was carried out by the Gallup agency in Argentina in April/May 2000. It found that while 71 percent of Argentines supported preserving the memory of the Holocaust, their factual knowledge was poor. Nevertheless, the vast majority agreed that the Holocaust did happen and Holocaust denial seems to have had little impact in Argentina.
The results indicate that Argentineans are located at the lower end of the scale in terms of factual knowledge of the Holocaust. Seventy-two percent affirmed that there were groups with Nazi ideology in Argentina.
On their attitudes toward Jews, a solid majority strongly agreed or partly agreed with the statement that the Jewish community had a right to its own institutions. On the other hand, a majority also agreed with the statement that “the Jewish community in Argentina shows greater interest in itself than in national life.”
Compared to a similar survey conducted in 1992, a positive trend was evident in the response to the question, “Compared with other ethnic groups in Argentina today, are Jews and their descendants more integrated or less integrated into the country?” In 2000 35 percent said they were equally integrated, 33 claimed they were more and 22 percent less integrated. (The 1992 figures were 39 percent, 21 percent and 34 percent, respectively.)
In response to the question about having Jews as neighbors, there was a negative trend compared with the 1992 survey. In 2000, 75 percent said it made no difference to them to have a Jewish neighbor, 8 percent would like to have one and 15 percent preferred not to have one. (The 1992 figures were 76 percent, 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively.)
RESPONSES TO EXTREMISM AND ANTISEMITISM
Legal Activity
The DAIA has been vigilant in recent years in monitof the 1988 anti-discrimination law (see, for example, ASW 1998/9, 1999/2000). In March 2000 it lodged complaints to the judicial authorities against the PNT and the PNOSP, demanding that these organizations be closed down. These cases are still pending.
One of the most important public events in 2000 was the abrogation of two laws passed during the democratic government of Ra úl Alfonsín (1983–89), relating to the period of the military dictatorship, 1976–83. The two laws were Obediencia Debida (Law of Obligatory Obedience), which absolved lower-ranking military personnel from responsibility for perpetrating crimes during that period because they were obeying orders, and Punto Final (Statute of Limitations). Annulling these laws made the military once again vulnerable to new charges. As a result the military employed the services of attorney Enrique Torres Bande to defend 662 officials who were liable to stand trial for their involvement in the regime of the dictator. When it became public knowledge that Bande was also representing the PNT and had ties to Biondini, they relinquished his services. It should be noted that liberal groups have repeatedly accused the army of nationalist sympathies.
In Israel an inter-ministerial commission was set up by the attorney general in 2000 to determine whether Israel can prosecute members of the military junta for crimes committed against its citizens. An estimated 1,800–2000 Jews disappeared during the period of military dictatorship, some of whom had Israeli citizenship.
Two book stalls selling antisemitic and Nazi literature were closed by the authorities in March, one of them owned by PNOSP leader Alejandro Franze.
The AMIA and Israeli Embassy Cases
An important landmark has been reached in the AMIA case, dating from 1994, with the recent decision to accept an oral, rather than the more common written, trial of those who are being held in connection with the bombing. This will ensure a speedier end to the case.
The authorities announced in February that 20 Argentineans would be tried in connection with the AMIA bombing. Prosecutors will seek life sentences for six of the accused – five of them former policemen. The rest, including 11 policemen, are being charged with lesser crimes.
On 18 July, thousands gathered to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the bombing and to demand justice. At an open session in parliament, congressmen tabled a motion urging the necessity of continuing with the police investigation and of bringing the guilty to trial.
There was no progress in the investigation of the Israeli embassy bombing of 1992. A ceremony, attended by President Fernando de la R úa, was held in March naming the site of the bombed embassy Israeli Embassy Plaza.
Official and Public Activity
In response to the rapid growth of neo-Nazi and antisemitic Internet activity in Latin America, a new Spanish-language website, Shalom Online, was launched on 1 January 2000. It provides news and information on Jewish and Israeli religious and cultural events and serves as a forum for countering neo-Nazism and antisemitism. The site, based in Buenos Aires, is backed by Jewish and non- Jewish institutions.
During a ceremony marking the 57th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, in April 2000, Argentinean President Fernando de la Rúa apologized to Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community for his country’s harboring of war criminals after World War II. He also acknowledged that antisemitism remained a problem in Argentina. He reiterated his apology in June during a visit to the US.
The Argentinean government recalled its ambassador to Austria in February after his statement that FPÖ leader Jörg Haider was a “democrat” and that claims of neo-Nazi trends in the country were “journalistic exaggeration.”
The government tightened security on Jewish institutions in early 2000 following threats by Islamic extremists in south Lebanon to attack Jews everywhere. | 