Six immigrants from Argentina have appealed to the Supreme Court to order the Israeli government to help them obtain information on the fate of close relatives missing in Argentina. The justices are expected to consider the appeal within the next few days.
If they do, it will be the first time Israel’s highest judicial body takes up the issue of whether the government has a duty to intervene in matters related to Jewish citizens of a friendly foreign country.
The immigrants stated that their relatives are among the 1,500 Argentine Jews who have “disappeared” in recent years, along with thousands of other Argentine citizens allegedly kidnapped by the military regime and never heard from again.
They want the high court to order the government to explain why “it would not ask the Argentine government for official clarification of the fate” of their relatives.
They recalled that when Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir visited Argentina earlier this year he was given a list of the names of 30 missing Jews to submit to the authorities in Buenos Aires and to ask them for clarification. But Shamir brought no reply home with him. Last April, the Argentine government gave Israel two lists and information which, according to the appeal, proved to be false.
SOME OF THE DISAPPEARED PERSONS
The appellants include two lawyers, Louis and liana Haimovitz, who said their 17-year-old daughter, Alexandra was kidnapped in Cordova; Dr. Esther Goldberg, whose husband, Dr. Daniel Goldberg, disappeared in La Plata; and Moshe Said, of Ashkelon, whose two sons disappeared.
The appeal includes detailed testimony heard by the Human Rights Committee of the Organization of American States (OAS) and Amnesty International about the humiliation, torture and murder of political prisoners by the Argentine authorities. The appellants said they have approached several local and international organizations for information, but to no avail.
HEARING IN GENEVA
Meanwhile, a group of Argentine women whose children and grandchildren have disappeared in Argentina arrived in Geneva last week to attend a hearing of the United Nations Human Rights Commission on missing persons. One of them, Rose Tarlovski de Rosenblik of Buenos Aires, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Geneva that her eight-month pregnant daughter, Patricia Peres, was abducted in 1978.
According to Mrs. Tarlovski men in civilian clothes seized her daughter and her then 15 month-old child. The child was released to the grandparents. Subsequently, she said, her daughter telephoned her to say she was well. A man who did not identify himself phoned saying, “Your daughter will be set free in six months’ time or a year as the charges against her are not serious,” Mrs. Tarlovski said. She said the man told her, “When the baby is born we shall bring it to you to take care of so prepare all the necessary items.” The call was the last she ever heard of her daughter and her daughter’s expected child, Mrs. Tarlovski said. She said her daughter, who was in her last year at medical school, was not active in politics or a member of any political party. She just opposed the regime, the mother said.
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