A banner commemorating the bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, in an urban square dedicated to peace in Rosario, Argentina. Photo: Pablo D. Flores via Wikimedia Commons.

A crowd of people came out to protest in front of the Argentinian Consulate General in midtown Manhattan on Monday against an agreement Argentina recently signed with Iran to create a “truth commission” investigating the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing of the AMIA Jewish communal building, in which 85 people were killed and 300 were injured.

Suspicion has been laid for years at Iran as the culprit behind that deadly terrorist attack, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Consulate in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed and 250 were injured.

“The 1994 AMIA bombing was the worst attack on a Diaspora Jewish community since the Holocaust. The Argentinian government has covered up for the perpetrators since the beginning, including its then president Carlos Menem, who later was told he would stand trial for obstruction of justice… The Argentinian-Iranian memorandum is like the US signing an agreement with Al Qaeda to investigate the 9/11 attacks. It makes no sense. The cover up continues. It’s absolutely shameful,” said Rabbi Avi Weiss, national president of Amcha-Coalition for Jewish Concerns, at the demonstration.

“They’re spitting in our face and want us to believe it will be a sincere investigation. We call for an American Congressional resolution of disapproval of this agreement,” said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.