Buenos Aires, 2 September 2010

In a letter presented to Argentine Foreign Minister, Héctor Timerman, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre expressed its thanks for the Ministry’s hosting of its conference “Lessons from the Darkness: Euthanasia, Banality of Evil, Justice, Early Warning System”.

The conference took place on the 71st anniversary of Hitler’s invasion that launched World War Two and in the context of Argentina’s Bicentennial.

The letter expressed “respect for the firm commitment, as expressed by both Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to bring justice to the families of victims of the AMIA bombing”. 

The conference organizers, Dr. Shimon Samuels (the Centre’s Director for International Relations) and Sergio Widder (its Latin American Director) urged that “Argentina champion the Centre’s campaign to ban Hizbollah from Latin America. Hizbollah has twice violated Argentine sovereignty and its sleepers are, reportedly awaiting the call for further action on its territory. 

Such a ban would provide grounds for expulsion of its agents and prohibit all trade and financial assistance to Hizbollah”. 

Samuels requested that Argentina “bring this campaign to the Organization of American States, the PARLATINO and other inter-American bodies, to designate Hizbollah as a ‘terrorist organization that threatens the peace of the entire Hemisphere in violation of the Pact of Chapultepec – the Charter of the Pan-American Union’”. 

Widder stated that “the Wiesenthal Centre is ready to work in bringing this campaign to the attention of public opinion worldwide to the greater glory of Argentina”.