(Periodistas/IFEX) – During a television programme broadcast on the evening of 19 July 2000, businessman Raúl Juan Pedro Moneta asserted that three journalists were repeatedly attacking him because they were Jewish, while he was a “practicing” and “devoted Catholic.” “As everyone knows, I am a practicing, devoted Catholic, who has worked a lot for the […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – During a television programme broadcast on the evening of 19 July 2000, businessman Raúl Juan Pedro Moneta asserted that three journalists were repeatedly attacking him because they were Jewish, while he was a “practicing” and “devoted Catholic.”
“As everyone knows, I am a practicing, devoted Catholic, who has worked a lot for the Catholic community in this country and I feel very discriminated against. I have been under constant attack by individuals who practice other religions, such as Mister (Horacio) Verbitsky, Mister (Ernesto) Tenembaum or Mister (Marcelo) Zlotogwiazda,” Moneta stated, in an interview aired on Channel 7 in Mendoza.
The three journalists Moneta referred to have been investigating the bankruptcy legal proceedings for the Mendoza and República banks, at the time when these two entities were under Moneta’s control. Moneta is known as the banker who was most linked to former President Carlos Menem. After receiving evidence that pointed to irregularities in the banks’ liquidation process, a Mendoza province judge proceeded to try Moneta. Subsequently, the businessman fled for six months. Nevertheless, a more recent ruling of the Federal Appeals Court annulled the Mendoza judge’s decision. Currently, two members of congress have asked that the judges who supported this ruling be tried in a political trial.
PERIODISTAS strongly protested “the businessman’s clearly antisemitic statements”, and warned against “this pretense of using the Catholic faith to defend personal interests, by asserting that the matter referred to a religious clash”.
The Catholic Church also reacted to Moneta’s statements. The director of the Archbishop’s of Buenos Aires press office, Guillermo Marco, noted that “the Vatican had not asked Moneta to be its representative. I fail to understand what the connection is between religion and the failure of a bank in Mendoza.”
The strongest condemnation was voiced by the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (Delegacion de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, DAIA), which decided to file charges against the banker “for having made antisemitic statements, promoting racial and religious hatred”. The three journalists also plan to take legal action, and will be supported in this effort by the head of the National Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism Institute (Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminacion y el Racismo, INADI), Raúl Zaffaroni.
Moneta also verbally attacked Carlos Balter, member of congress for the Mendoza region, and journalists Román Lejtman and Andrés Klipphan. The latter “is not Jewish, but could be mistaken as such because of his surname”, the daily “Página/12” ironically reported.
