The minister of Agriculture of that country, Yair Shamir, offered a strong statement during the commemoration ceremony for the victims of the bombing of the Israeli Embassy. “The murderers were financed by Iran,” he argued. Ambassador Dorit Shavit called for uniting to reject terrorism: “It kills all of us a little.”
19 March 2015
Full Text With video of Minister Shamir’s remarks in Hebrew and Spanish
With the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman being known, the Israeli government decided this year to send one of its ministers to represent the Government in the event with which Jewish community remembers every March the embassy bombing in 1992. Yair Shamir, in charge of the portfolio of Agriculture, specifically mentioned the prosecutor in the hard speech he gave at the ceremony.
Minister Shamir recalled the 29 killed in the attack on the embassy and noted that “two years later the murderers came back to strike” at the AMIA, causing another 85 deaths.
“The vile terrorist perpetrators of the attack have been supported and financed by Iran. They didn’t care that across the street there was a church, that it was next to a nursing home and a garden. What did matter to them was to kill as many Jews as possible,” he said.
Citing both attacks, he noted that “unfortunately” this year there was another “tragedy”. That was how he defined Nisman’s death. And he said: “He paid with his life for attempting to reach the truth.”
“Argentina and Israel, both countries are victims of terror, motivated by hatred,” he said. “The crimes must be investigated tirelessly to bring those responsible to court and so that justice be done.”
Shamir said the investigation Nisman carried out on the AMIA case “showed that the ones behind the attack” were Iran and Hezbollah.
Then he aimed against Teheran: “Iran continues with terror and destruction throughout the world, but the world goes on as if nothing happened.” In his view, “the world is taking an attitude that is either hypocritical or that ignores the danger” of the nuclear program being developed by the Islamic Republic. So he called on the international community “to unite in a common struggle against terror”. And he warned: “If we remain with our arms crossed, it will be the end of the civilized world.”
“It is true, they killed our people, they wounded us, they left scars, but we are strong. No one will break us, neither terror nor the murderers,” he said, adding that in “every generation” there are those who stand to “annihilate” the Israelis.
The Minister closed his speech with the statement that neither the State of Israel nor her people will forget the attacks in Argentina. “Our mandate is to continue relentlessly until the guilty pay for their crimes,” he concluded amidst loud applause from the audience.
In turn, the Israeli ambassador to Argentina, Dorit Shavit, began recalling an open letter that was read on the 20th anniversary number, and said that there have already been “23 years during which children have missed their parents, children that are already are parents.”
“Israel and Argentina share the pain of an open wound,” she lamented, and questioned that “despite the passage of time no one went to trial.” “Some of them are wanted by Interpol for years,” she recalled, while reaffirming that the intention is that “the State of Israel bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Regarding the death of prosecutor Nisman, the diplomat remarked that “he died without finishing his investigation”, and she remains hopeful that “the investigation of the AMIA bombing will bring the embassy bombing to light”. “Terrorism kills us all a little,” she added.
At the end of the speech, speaking to the press, she agreed with the Israeli official that “the prosecutor paid with his life.”
“We must unite to say no to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. No to the terrorist state of Iran. No to the phenomenon of xenophobia. No to the spread of violent Islamic radicalism. The memory of the victims remain etched in our hearts,” she closed.