Jewish representatives attending the trial of 20 people implicated in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center here are hoping that last month’s terrorist attacks in the United States will help focus attention on this unsolved crime.
“The terrorist episodes in the United States made it even more important to follow the AMIA trial. And the Argentine government knows it, and the court knows it, too,” said Jacob Kovadloff, Latin American affairs consultant for the American Jewish Committee.
Kovadloff is attending the trial’s first two weeks along with Kara Stein, assistant legal director for the AJCommittee.
Samuel Kaplan, representing B’nai B’rith International, also has been attending the trial for the bombing, which killed 85 people and wounded 300. Leonard Cole and Martin Raffel of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs attended the first two days.
Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Benjamin Oron, attended the trial’s opening as well.
Jewish observers agree that this trial — which focuses on the “local connection” in the attack — is just a first step.
“As long as the people responsible for the attack are not found, there is always the chance that it will happen again, like in September in the United States,” Kaplan told JTA.
In addition to the AMIA attack, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people also remains unsolved.
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