After curtly rejecting the proposal earlier this month, the Buenos Aires City Council has reversed itself and approved plans to unveil a memorial sculpture to the victims of the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Jewish headquarters here.
Three weeks ago, the council refused permission for a 3-foot granite monolith bearing the names of the 86 people killed in the bombing of the Argentine Mutual Aid Association, or AMIA. The council said at the time that the proposed location of the memorial, in a plaza across the street from the Argentine Supreme Court, was “a provocation.”
The Supreme Court, which has responsibility for investigating the case, has failed to find those responsible for carrying out the AMIA bombing, which also left more than 300 wounded.
“Such a memorial in front of the Supreme Court and Central Courthouse building would be embarrassing to our government,” one member of the council said after the initial decision was made.
The victims’ relatives, members of what is known as the Active Memory group, had wanted to unveil the memorial in a July 15 ceremony as part of last week’s ceremonies marking the second anniversary of the bombing. The relatives said they had selected the site “to remind the Argentine judiciary that they have to investigate and solve the case.”
Active Memory members protested the council’s original decision.
Diana Malamud, a member of the group, addressed the issue when she spoke before the 10,000 people who gathered last week at the site of the bombing to commemorate the second anniversary of the attack. “How can I explain to my daughters that the city council will not allow a monument to their father and the other victims?” she said.
Faced with harsh criticism from the media and embarrassing questions from opposition members of the council, the Peronist majority in the council reversed its vote this week and authorized the monument to be unveiled at the requested site.
Members of Active Memory said they plan to unveil the memorial Aug. 19.
“It is a pity we could not open the memorial last week,” Malamud said. “But we are happy that they finally were shamed into progress.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
