The pervasiveness of diasporean frames in the making of Jewish Identity in contemporary Argentina: Media rejection of Argentina-Iran agreement and the publicization of Chancellor Timerman Jewish identity.

SETTON, DAMIAN

Congreso; BRISMES annual conference: Ecology, Crisis and Power in the Middle East.; 2023

British Society for Meddle Eastern Studies

During the second presidential term of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, an agreement between Argentina and the Islamic Republic of Iran was signed with the alleged purpose of advance in the investigation of the AMIA bombing. The Mass Media became a propitious environment for the dissemination of criticism of the agreement. Several frames were activated in order to advance criticism. The objective of this paper is to analyze how ethnic-diasporean frames work in the making of a situation definition. In order to advance this objective, the paper analyzes both the discourses portrayed by the Mass Media and the discourses portrayed by the Right-Wind Zionist Media (Ethnic Media). It is observed that the situation definition portrayed by the media emphasizes the Jewish identity of former Chancellor Héctor Timerman and his own relation with the State of Israel. In fact, the alleged right of Israel in giving his opinion about the agreement was one of the main subjects of dispute between kirchnerist and anti-kirchnerist political actors. The ethnic-religious identity that Timerman himself tried to define as a kind of private realm identity was publicized in order to advance and antigovernment political agenda. We can observe how this specific situation shed light on the making of Jewish identity in contemporary Argentina and the pervasiveness of a diasporean frame in the making of this identity.