Aníbal Fernández is Argentina’s Minister for Justice, Security and Human Rights and he believes that there has been “… no outbreak of antisemitism in Argentina”, though he’s willing to admit that there have been “…unfortunate demonstrations directed at the Jewish community.”

In another report on the same matter, the minister is quoted as having said,

It’s not right that a person who chooses to live in this country be insulted because they profess the Jewish religion.

Maybe I’m being a little picky but the vast majority of Argentina’s Jews were born in this country and the idea that they have “chosen” to live here strikes me as a little odd. Certainly, I can’t imagine the minister referring to any other group of citizens in Argentina in the same way.

In any case, a communiqué from AMIA, one of the country’s most important Jewish organizations, indicates that not everybody shares the minister’s sanguine view of the situation. It refers to a

…perfectly organized and financed campaign [of antisemitism] which tries to disguise its hatred and intolerance behind the façade of anti-Zionism or anti-Israeli opinion. But let’s not fool ourselves. This is pure antisemitism.

At a ceremony to mark Holocaust Memorial Day Sergio Burstein, a member of a group representing victims of the AMIA massacre, went even farther and spoke of a

… demonic carnival [of antisemitism] organized, among others, by Luis D’Elía, human rights organizations and political parties, taking advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

D’Elía is a a prominent social activist and admirer of the present regime in Iran. He is often reported to have a close relationship with former president Néstor Kirchner. During the recent conflict in Gaza, he was a leading participant in demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy, demonstrations which featured the customary characterization of Israel as a Nazi state and gestures of support for Hamas. Demonic carnivals of antisemitism is exactly what they looked like.

Someone is sure to write a comment saying that this is all a dreadful exaggeration, that Jews are doing fine in Argentina, that some of the government’s most prominent supporters are Jews and that some well-known Argentine Jews have fiercely criticized Israel’s recent actions in Gaza. All of this is perfectly true. It doesn’t make any less true the fact that there a wide streak of antisemitism running through society here and that every time the conflict in the Middle East heats up, it bursts to the surface with renewed vigor.