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Topic: AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires: 10 years after
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lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534
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posted 08 July 2004 08:05 PM
You are welcome, josh. I sent this to jeff house, of course, but as we know he is rather busy these days with his refugee case! I know several people who were affected by this event in Buenos Aires. It was right in the centre of the city, and although on a smaller scale, was as shocking to Porteņos as the WTC was to New Yorkers. The folks in Buenos Aires are concerned with the Iranian and Hezbollah connection, to be sure, but even more with the complicity of their own police forces, military, and quite likely higher-ups in the Argentine government. At the very least they did not treat this grave event with the diligence it deserved. To add insult and injury, Argentine government officials conveyed their condoleances ... to the staff at the Israeli embassy! The people killed were Argentineans, and the AMIA was unrelated to Israel, except in the eyes of anti-semites. AMIA served as a community centre of the type your children go to, but also as an invaluable repository of historical records, as it was a mutual society founded over 100 years ago, so it was a mine of information for the study of Jewish immigration and cultural history in Argentina. There was also a library of Yiddish books - a branch of WIZO - think there is another in NYC. I'll post more information when I come across it - there will no doubt be several articles (in Spanish, of course) in Buenos Aires papers. There was quite an in-depth article a while back in the NYTimes - I wouldn't be surprised if the journalist returns to this event on the 10th anniversary.
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002
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lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534
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posted 08 July 2004 10:06 PM
All: I re-read my post, and don't find the words Israeli connection. I do see Iranian, Hezbollah connection (as a lead in the case). Specifically meaning ties in a kind of plot (ā la "French Connection"). Not referring to the wealth of Semitic populations, be they Jewish or Arab, in Argentina. (Pardon me if I am ignorant about the size of the Persian/Iranian population - but it is not mentioned in all studies on immigration to Argentina as Jews and Arabs are). Of course AMIA hosted Israel Days - and many other Jewish cultural events. My friend in Bs. As., whose parents fled the Warsaw Ghetto, studied Hebrew as a lad. His parents were utterly irreligious, but I think at the time (my friend is exactly my age, so this was in the late 1950s - early 1960s) learning Hebrew was an important expression of Jewish pride in survival. I have another close friend from Buenos Aires, who know lives in France. He is of non-Jewish Italian descent, but grew up in one of the two historic Jewish neighbourhoods (Once and Villa Crespo) in Bs. As. His sister and brother-in-law have a small shop near the former AMIA. For weeks after, they had to remove shards - sometimes caked in blood - from the explosion. But remember, a big part of the outrage about this atrocity is not only that it occurred, but the inaction, cover-up and general attitude of the authorities.
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002
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