“Exactly ten years ago today (at 9 o’clock in the morning), a booby-trapped car exploded, with a suicide bomber inside, in front of the Jewish community AMIA Building in Argentina.

It was a murderous and abominable attack, aimed at killing Jews merely for being Jewish.  The attack claimed the lives of 85 people, and 230 were injured – citizens of Argentina, Jews and non-Jews.  Due to this despicable act which claimed so many lives, the Jewish Community building collapsed, as well as the buildings adjacent to it, and it thus serves as a testimony to the cruelty of terror, and its initiators and perpetrators are still free.

Today, the Government of Israel sends its condolences to the bereaved families, and conveys its solidarity with those who were wounded in the attack and with the entire Jewish community in Argentina.
Today, at a special ceremony in Buenos Aires, the community will mark a decade to this dreadful attack.

Israel commends the decision of the President of Argentina, Nestor Kirshner, to participate in the ceremony, and views it as another indication of the positive treatment of the Jewish community in Argentina, and the commitment of the Government of Argentina to fully investigate the circumstances of the attack, to find those responsible, and bring them to trial.

There can be neither pardon nor forgiveness for this terrible crime and for the terrorists, who belong to international terrorist organizations and receive instructions from extremist countries.

During the day, a ministerial committee will be assembled, headed by Minister Nathan Sharansky, which will discuss, inter alia, the ways in which the State of Israel will commemorate the appalling attack in Amia.

Israel continues to act determinedly against the terror directed at the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and is committed to paying tribute to all the victims of terrorist attacks”.