ARGENTINA 2006

 

Antisemitic activity increased dramatically in 2006, with over 500 antisemitic events being recorded. The impact of the Second Lebanon War in the second half of the year could be detected in the employment of anti-Israel motifs which mixed traditional antisemitic and anti-Zionist content, especially in wall graffiti.

 

The Jewish Community

The Jewish population of Argentina, numbering about 180,000 out of a total population of 37 million, has been declining since the 1960s. Some 80 percent live in Buenos Aires city and the Greater Buenos Aires area. Cities with a large Jewish presence include Rosario, Córdoba, San Miguel de Tucumán, Mendoza, Bahía Blanca, La Plata and Santa Fe.

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 the DAIA (Delegación 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 community organization. The Vaad ha-Kehilot is the umbrella organization of all the communities in the provinces.

On 3 August the legislature in Buenos Aires approved the construction of a monument to the memory of victims of the Holocaust. A public contest for the design of the monument was to be declared by the secretary of culture.

 

extremist organizations

Alejandro Biondini (pseudonym 'Kalki' - see ASW 2001/2) continues to lead the Partido Nuevo Triunfo (PNT), which runs the website Ciudad Libertad de Opinion and celebrates Hitler's birthday. Since the Federal Supreme Court denied the party legal status due to its identification with Nazism, it cannot put up candidates for election. PNT is associated with another small far right party, Accion Ciudadana (100−150 members).

Swastikas were frequently reported on walls of cities and towns, as well as on Jewish facilities (see below). T-shirts adorned with swastikas were sold in February in the city of Carlos Paz, and a flag with Nazi symbols was displayed at a rock concert on 4 April, in Francisco Ramos Plaza. On 9 January, a swastika was drawn on the front of a public school in Araoz St., Buenos Aires, and swastikas appeared in several areas of the city of Santa Fe on 20 March.

A radical leftist group, the Quebracho Patriotic Revolutionary Movement, known for its vandalistic actions against capitalist and establishment symbols, blocked a demonstration by Jewish groups in front of the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires protesting Iran's support for Hizballah in August. (see http://www.quebracho.org.ar/comunicados/leer.php?nombre=2005/06-08-23-(15-32-20).txt).

 

Antisemitic Activities

Antisemitic activity increased dramatically in 2006, with over 500 antisemitic events being recorded, compared to 375 the previous year. During the first half of the year the majority were cases of wall graffiti in Buenos Aires and other provinces, but there were also a few violent attacks on Jewish individuals, threats to Jewish institutions and especially, harassment and insults. The second half of the year was marked by similar tendencies; however, the impact of the Second Lebanon War could be detected in the employment of anti-Israel motifs which mixed traditional antisemitic and anti-Zionist content, especially in wall graffiti.

An antisemitic discourse on Israel has emerged in Argentina in the last few years. It ranges from the use of traditional antisemitic motifs (the Jews' alleged killing of Christ, evocation of the blood libel, and comparing Israel to a cancer) to banalization of the Holocaust and denial of the right of Israel and the Zionist movement to exist. Particularly in 2006 there were calls for the complete destruction of the State of Israel. With the outbreak of the war in Lebanon and intensified fighting in Gaza, it was claimed that this was a legitimate demand. For example, graffiti saying, "Death to the State of Israel. Support the Palestinians," appeared on 12 July in a street near Plaza Congreso, Buenos Aires. The slogan "For destruction of the Zionist State of Israel" appeared in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, on 13 September. For a discussion on the antisemitic discourse in Argentina and the trend toward the delegitimization of the State of Israel, see General Analysis.

 

 Violence, Insults, Discrimination and Threats

A few cases of violence and harassment were recorded. For example, on 11 January, a priest shouting, "Jew, I will kill you. All the Jews must be murdered!" assaulted an identifiably Jewish man in the resort city of Mar del Plata. A 15-year-old boy dressed in Orthodox Jewish garb was slapped on the face by a fellow passenger on 11 November in Buenos Aires when he asked the bus conductor to stop and let him off. The man was arrested.

Insults were a common form of antisemitic activity. For example, on 9 March, the mayor of the town of Santorino, Entre Rios Province, Daniel Salva, labeled a Jewish citizen a "dirty Jew." Similarly, in January an employee in Misiones province, northern Argentina, called his boss a "dirty Jew."

Jewish institutions received a number of bomb threats. On 4 April, the Sephardic Congregation, Buenos Aires, received a phone call threatening: "We have placed a bomb. You have one hour to leave the place," and "One, two, three, BOOM!" On 29 May, the Asociacion Israelita de Salta, Salta Province, received a message saying: "You will explode."

 

Graffiti

As noted, wall graffiti was one of the most common forms of antisemitic expression in 2006, appearing more frequently and in more locations than in the previous year. It was also more virulent, combining traditional antisemitic motifs with Nazi-type threats to kill Jews. Although detected at different times and in different places, the content seemed to indicate that the same groups were responsible. For example, the text "God, liberate us from the Jews!" appeared on the Galerias Pacifico shopping mall, Buenos Aires, and then, in other parts of the city.

The slogans "5000 years of Jewish harming the world" and "The Jews are taking our lives" were painted on a train station in the neighborhood of Vicente Lopez in Buenos Aires Province. Similarly, the catchphrase "God save us from the Jews! [Dios, salvanos de los Judios]" appeared on 4 January in Reconquista and 25 de Mayo streets, Buenos Aires, and five days later in a street nearby.

In other provinces, the entrance to a Jewish cemetery of Cordoba Province was defaced with the message, "The Final Solution will come! Heil Hitler Dirty Jews. Get out of the country," and two swastikas. A swastika was also painted on the building of the Asociacion Israelita de Bahia Blanca on 6 February.

Anti-Jewish graffiti also appeared in soccer venues, such as the Ferrocarril Oeste Club stadium, on which swastikas and the slogans, "Jews get out" and "Arbeit Macht Frei," were painted on 11 February. On 17 June the slogan 'Basta de Judios' (Enough of Jews) appeared on the walls of the Independiente Pacifico soccer stadium in Neuqem, signed by 'Poder Ario' (Aryan Power).

            In recent years, the anti-imperialistic stand of antisemitic groups linking the US, Jews and Israel, has featured in their graffiti. For example: on April 4, the slogan "Bush works for the Jews" was reported on the corner of Madero and Cordoba streets, Buenos Aires.

An environmental site, Reserva Ecologica de la Costanera Sur, was defaced with the message: "The passion of the Jews is to do harm. The Jews are destroying the planet."

 

The AMIA Case

In 2006 the justice authorities released a number of prisoners who had served several years of their jail sentence for involvement in the 'local connection' to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center, due to irregularities in the taking of testimony. The DAIA, AMIA and the Families and Friends of the Victims organization, asked the Supreme Court of Argentina to issue a final verdict on the case. In addition, the Argentinean government issued a warrant for the arrest of eight Iranian citizens, including former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, claiming he and the Iranian state were responsible for the act. The warrant was sent both to Interpol and to the Iranian government.

On the 12th anniversary of the bombing, President Nestor Kirchner declared 18 July a national day of mourning.