A left-wing Argentine politician could be facing legal action launched on Thursday by Argentina's Jewish communities after he made anti-Zionist and antisemitic remarks, including claiming that all Zionists are Nazis.
In several tweets posted throughout May, secretary-general of the fringe Trotskyist Socialist Workers' Party Alejandro Bodart accused Israel of being a "genocidal state."
In a tweet marking Nakba Day on May 16, Bodart called for a "secular and democratic" Palestine to be freed "from the river to the sea," which implies he is advocating to wipe Israel off the map. Additionally, as mentioned above, Bodart wrote in a now-deleted tweet that all Zionists are "Nazis."
74 años de la catástrofe que vive el pueblo palestino, a manos del Estado racista y genocida de Israel. La llave, símbolo de sus casas y tierras robadas, está presente en cada lucha. Por una Palestina laica y democrática, del río al mar.#Nakba74 pic.twitter.com/HLtjVYHG6A
— Alejandro Bodart (@Ale_Bodart) May 15, 2022
In a statement published on its Twitter account on Monday, the umbrella organization Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA), or the "Delegation of Israeli-Argentinian Associations," condemned Bodart's anti-Zionist comments, saying his remarks possibly violated an Argentinian anti-discrimination law, as well as the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which was adopted by Argentina in 2020.
Bodart's comments "explicitly trivialized the Holocaust by comparing Zionism to Nazism and called for the destruction of Israel, which he called a 'genocidal and racist' state," the statement said. According to DAIA, Bodart promotes a message of hate that "threatens democratic coexistence."
DAIA, through its legal department, will seek to investigate whether Bodart's comments constitute a violation of Argentine law, the organization said.
LA DAIA DENUNCIÓ A BODART POR ANTISEMITISMO Y ANTISIONISMO pic.twitter.com/yRE7xWVylx
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 2, 2022
Bodart's response
In response, Bodart vowed to continue voicing his support for Palestinians amid attempts to "silence him."
"As always, when the racist and colonialist policies of the State of Israel are questioned, 'they' launch their threats."
Alejandro Bodart, leader of Argentina's Socialist Workers' Party
In a statement of his own, Bodart claimed that "authoritarianism is an intrinsic component of Zionism" and added that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to "destroy Israel in order to 'rebuild' the state of Palestine."
Bodart's Socialist Workers' Party, which runs in Argentine elections in a united faction with three other left-wing parties known as the Workers' Left Front, only won two of 127 seats in the South American country's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Argentina's congress.
Interestingly, the Workers' Left Front nominated Myriam Bregman, who identifies as an atheist Jew, as their vice-presidential candidate in the 2015 presidential elections, which the party lost.
