Argentine federal judge Daniel Rafecas has indicted Vanina Biasi, a national deputy from the Workers’ Party, for antisemitic hate speech under the country’s Anti-Discrimination Law 23.592. The ruling concerns a series of social media posts made between November 2023 and January 2024, in which Biasi repeatedly equated Zionism with Nazism and accused Israel of genocide, reports The Jerusalem Post.
Judge Rafecas imposed a 10 million peso lien on Biasi’s assets as part of the case. If convicted, she could face up to three years in prison for inciting hatred and promoting discriminatory propaganda.
In her posts, Biasi referred to the “Zionist state” as “Nazi,” accused it of engaging in genocide and apartheid, and claimed its narrative was used to justify atrocities. She dismissed the anguish of a father searching for his kidnapped daughter after the 7 October Hamas attack as part of a “Zionist narrative.” She declared, “I understand that a propagandist of a terrorist, genocidal, and child-killing state would be upset to read this, but their bullying will not silence me.”
Judge Rafecas ruled that these remarks exceeded the bounds of protected speech, stating they incited persecution and hatred against the Jewish community, violating the principles of equality and non-discrimination. He also cited the impact such rhetoric could have in Argentina, a nation that has suffered two major antisemitic terrorist attacks: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish centre in Buenos Aires.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January 2024, Biasi further inflamed tensions by comparing the Holocaust’s ideology to what she called Israel’s “justification of Palestinian genocide.” The following day, she accused “Zionist Nazis” of attempting to dismantle humanitarian work by UNRWA. She likened their alleged actions to Nazi-era methods of extermination, including the use of famine.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish organisations condemned her statements as blatantly antisemitic, warning of the dangerous impact such rhetoric can have in a country with a painful history of antisemitic violence.
Photo credit: Matias Baglietto/Reuters
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