The attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina, 30 years without justice

Buenos Aires, 17 Mar Just 30 years ago, a total of 29 people died and hundreds were injured in the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, the first of two terrorist attacks committed in Argentina against Jewish interests and which, like the one perpetrated by the mutual AMIA in 1994, is attributed to Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Party Hezbollah, and remains unpunished. Around 14.50 local time on 17 March 1992, a bomb explosion completely destroyed the diplomatic headquarters, located in the elegant neighborhood of Retiro. This Thursday, at that same time and as every year, survivors, relatives of the deceased, representatives of the Jewish community and State authorities participated in an event in which, in addition to honoring the victims, it was warned that, three decades later, there is still no justice. “Iran committed this terrible terrorist attack through its representatives Hezbollah. We have a moral obligation to go after those who committed this despicable crime. These people have names and faces. We demand that they be brought to trial for their crimes against humanity,” Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, Gideon Saar, said on the spot. EMOTIONAL CEREMONY The place where the embassy was located, which hosts the emotional ceremony every anniversary, has for years been a square dedicated to honoring the memory of the dead: Argentines, Israelis, Bolivians, Paraguayans, Uruguayans and Italians, whether they were embassy employees, neighbors or passers-by. Along with various speeches, this Thursday's tribute was sung the anthems of Argentina and Israel, there was a heartfelt musical performance and floral offerings were placed. Also two prayers, one Jewish and the other Catholic, the latter headed by a priest from the Madre Admirable parish, which, located next to the old embassy, suffered the loss of Father Juan Carlos Brumana in the attack and serious damage to its premises: the church, a nursing home and a school. On behalf of the families of victims and survivors, Miri Ben Zeev Koren, widow of the former embassy head of security, who died in the attack, recalled how when she returned to Buenos Aires, the city she left after the attack, she feels her husband closer because it is where he “lived the last months, weeks and hours of his life”. “We are here. Not Eli. But we continue. Eli has continuity. They failed to destroy us, they managed to shake us, hurt us, hurt our hearts, the life that was just beginning, a young couple with a six-year-old boy and a baby who was born in Buenos Aires, our beloved Paris of South America,” he said. WITHOUT CONVICTIONS The Jewish community and the Justice of Argentina - a country that hosts the largest Jewish community in Latin America - point to senior officials of the then Iranian Government and Hezbollah as those responsible for the attack. But so far no international arrest warrant has come to fruition. The same applies to the attack that on July 18, 1994 destroyed the old headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and left 85 dead, whose investigation was from the beginning riddled with irregularities and allegations of cover-up against high authorities, such as former presidents Carlos Menem (1989-1999) - who was acquitted two years before she died, in 2019- and Cristina Fernández (2007-2015), current vice-president, dismissed from that charge in 2021. The Persian country has never collaborated to extradite suspects, including the current vice-president of economic affairs, Mohsen Rezai, and the Ministry of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi. At the ceremony, the Israeli minister warned that Iran “will attack whenever it can” and wondered: “How much longer will we have to wait for justice to be done?” for the acts committed in Argentina. “Looking ahead, I can say with certainty that this attack did not weaken our resolve as a nation. Today Israel is a stronger nation than before, and I can give you my word that as the sole State of the Jewish people we will not depart from our right and duty to defend ourselves,” he stressed. In his speech, Argentina's Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Martín Soria, lamented that “the lack of rapid and effective responses” and of “justice and punishment” to those responsible for the first attack “surely” also influenced that only two years later it was necessary to lament “another cruel and savage” attack. “The State is committed to the duty to work towards justice, which, even if it is slow, must necessarily reach the truth. Justice being done, finding and condemning the guilty is the only way to remedy all these years of pain and bring peace to the Argentine people and the people of Israel,” he said.