Argentine president to meet with Israeli survivors of embassy bombing
Published March 15, 2017
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — For first time, an Argentinian president will meet with the Israeli survivors and relatives of victims of the 1992 terrorist attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
President Mauricio Macri will host in his official residence a group of 30 Israelis on Friday morning, prior to the scheduled ceremony to mark 25 years since the bombing that killed 29 people and injured more than 200.
Previous presidents have met in the past with the families of Argentinian victims.
The delegation that will meet with the president and will participate in the remembrance ceremony includes current Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka Daniel Carmon, who lose his wife Eliora in the attack; former Israeli ambassador to Argentina, who was serving at the time of the bombing Yitzhak Shefi; and the director general of Israel´s Foreign Ministry, Yuval Rotem.
Carmon is part of a campaign to stop terrorism in which Argentinian celebrities use one hand to make the peace sign using two fingers and with the other hand the signal to stop using five fingers, expressing at the same time the number 25 and the motto “peace without terror.”
On March 12, Carmon also tweeted using the hashtag #PazSinTerror, which means peace without terror.
25 años después de la llegada del #Terrorismo a la #Argentina decimos todos, a voz alta : pic.twitter.com/e8aTZaXoHu
— Daniel Carmon🇮🇱 (@danielocarmon) March 12, 2017
In a ceremony held earlier in the month in Jerusalem to mark the 25th anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that: “We knew straight away that Iran was behind this heinous attack. Iran set it in motion, Iran planned it and Iran, through its proxy Hezbollah, also carried it out. Since the attack in Argentina, Iran, through its proxy Hezbollah, has established a global network of terror in more than 30 countries on five continents. It is the biggest instigator of terror in the world.”
Netanyahu in the March 6 ceremony also noted his confidence in the Argentinian president: “Having spoken with President Macri, I am impressed that he understands the problem well, and I intend to meet with him in the near future to strengthen the relations between our two countries in many areas, including these vital areas of enhancing defense and fighting terror,” he said.
The Argentinian Justice Department accused Iran of the 1992 attack and also of the 1994 attack against the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, both of which remain officially unresolved.