A display of posters at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, highlighting the plight of hostages seized by Hamas. Photo: Reuters/Añeli Pablo

More than 50 prominent intellectuals, artists, and politicians in Argentina have endorsed the founding statement of a new initiative created to combat antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel.

The statement announcing the formation of the Argentine Forum Against Antisemitism (FACA) was published on Tuesday and widely covered by local news outlets. “We won’t look the other way, we are going to defend Israel and denounce antisemitism,” Sabrina Ajmechet, a parliamentarian and a co-founder of FACA, declared.

Noting that the Hamas pogrom was the worst single atrocity targeting Jews since the Holocaust, the FACA statement observed that Hamas terrorists had committed the “worst atrocities.” It noted that among the more than 200 hostages seized and taken to Gaza, 22 were Argentine nationals.

“They are all victims simply because they are Jews,” the statement asserted.

Since the atrocities, “we have witnessed the intensification of attacks against the State of Israel and the Jews who live both there and in the diaspora,” the statement said, adding that these incidents had been “promoted by those who believe that the State of Israel should not exist and that Jews should be eliminated.”

It added that “sadly, we live in a time when antisemitism grows in our country and in the world, showing itself in broad daylight. Post-war lessons seem to have been forgotten and today we face dangers that we believed were overcome.” The statement concluded: “Today antisemitism is expressed in the form of anti-Zionism, condemning the existence of the State of Israel and its unequivocal right to defend itself and protect its citizens.”

Among the signatories to the statement are the writers Gonzalo Garcés and Federico Andahazi, philosophers Santiago Kovadloff and Diana Cohen Agrest, and politicians María Sotolano and Waldo Wolff.

Speaking to the Argentine news outlet La Nacion, Kovadloff depicted anti-Zionism as a “genocidal project.”

“It is an expression of fanaticism that ignores Israel’s legal and legitimate right to exist as a state,” he said. “From our forum we will endeavor to join those who dedicate themselves to disrupting that prejudice [and] the violence that prejudice engenders.”