Argentinian president invokes Shylock, angers Jewish community

Ed-note (Sabba) – And what if she had invoked Jesus’ powerful words against the merchants of the Temple and money lenders? 

I24NEWS

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner upset the country’s Jewish community when she invoked the character from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” – Shylock.

Kirchner said that to understand Argentina’s economic problems, one should look no farther than “The Merchant of Venice”, invoking the complex, vengeful Jewish moneylender.

Kirchner was speaking during a visit to Buenos Aires’ neighborhood of Villa Lugano, where she met schoolchildren. Her comment was prompted by the children saying they were reading “Romeo and Juliet” for class. “You have to read The Merchant of Venice to understand the vulture funds,” she said.

The crowd laughed, and Kirchner added “Don’t laugh. Usury and bloodsuckers have been immortalized in the greatest literature.”

Kirchner’s remarks were harshly criticized by the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations, who represent a community about 250,000 strong.

Last March, the Argentinian prosecution dismissed a case against Kirchner, in which she was accused of shielding Iranian officials from prosecution over a 1994 Jewish center bombing.

In a 2-1 decision, the court rejected an appeal from prosecutors, who sought to revive the case against Kirchner being brought by their late colleague Alberto Nisman before he mysteriously died on the eve of congressional hearings where he was due to present his explosive allegations.

“The federal appeals chamber ratifies the decision by Judge Daniel Rafecas to reject prosecutor Nisman’s accusation,” a justice ministry statement said then.

Nisman was appointed a decade ago to reopen the investigation into the long-unsolved bombing at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, which killed 85 people.

He accused Iran of ordering the attack via Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a claim the government in Tehran denies.

He later concluded that a 2013 deal between Argentina and Iran for the suspects to be investigated by a joint commission was a conspiracy designed to ensure they would never be brought to justice.

The prosecutor was found in his bathroom with a bullet through the head on January 18, after filing a report accusing Kirchner, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and other figures close to the government of protecting high-ranking Iranian officials, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in exchange for oil and other trade benefits.

Since his death, initially labeled a suicide, suspicion has fallen on Kirchner’s government of orchestrating his murder.

The president, who took office in 2007, has suggested the prosecutor was manipulated by disgruntled former intelligence agents who then killed him to smear her.