Following murder of child hostages, Argentina mulls renaming Palestine Street after Bibas family

Argentina’s capital city to consider measure that would rename Buenos Aires’ State of Palestine Street after the Argentinian-Israeli children murdered while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Argentina’s capital city is considering renaming a street after victims of the Hamas terror organization who were killed while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Yamil Santoro, a city councillor in Buenos Aires, drafted a measure that, if passed, would rename “State of Palestine Street” (Estado de Palestina), changing it to “Bibas Family Street” (Familia Bibas) in honor of the three members of the Argentinian-Israeli family who were murdered by Hamas terrorists while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Hamas returned the remains of the two sons of Yarden and Shiri Bibas – Kfir and Ariel – the two youngest hostages abducted from Israel on October 7th.

After falsely presenting the remains of another woman as the body of their mother, Shiri, Hamas returned Shiri Bibas’s remains over the weekend.

While Yarden, a dual Israeli-Argentinian national, was returned alive to Israel earlier this month, his wife and children – who received Argentinian citizenship through their father – were apparently killed in November 2023.

Israeli forensics examiners say it appears the two Bibas children were murdered by terrorists who used their bare hands, refuting Hamas’s claims that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Shiri Bibas’ remains also showed no signs of her injuries being caused by an airstrike.

“We are introducing a bill to change the name of the street from ‘Palestine’ to ‘Bibas Family,'” Santoro announced last Thursday. “It is essential to remember and honor the victims of terrorism.”

“Without prejudice to this idea/proposal, if you believe there is another initiative we can promote from the Buenos Aires Legislature to honor the victims and combat terrorism, I would like to hear it.”

The street in question, located in Buenos Aires’ Almagro neighborhood, was renamed “State of Palestine Street” in December 2013, after previously being simply called “Palestine Street,” a symbolic gesture of recognition of unilateral Palestinian statehood.

“State of Palestine, understood as the government that was established to look after its interests, was co-opted by the terrorist group Hamas and has led to us being faced with a failed state that prioritizes the search for the extermination of its neighbors,” Santoro said.

“Recognizing a failed state, appropriated by terrorism, is a deliberate act of forgetting and omitting the atrocities committed.”

In addition to political opposition, the measure will face technical hurdles, owing to a 1998 law that prohibits naming public areas after people who have been dead for less than 10 years.

Santoro hopes that by naming the street after the Bibas family rather than individual members of the family, his measure can skirt the restriction.

Buenos Aires is not the only city in Argentina, or even in the Province of Buenos Aires, with a street named “Palestine.”

In November 2022, Santa Clara del Mar, a municipality in the Province of Buenos Aires, renamed a main road “Palestine Street” in recognition of the 34th anniversary of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s declaration of statehood in November 1988.