In Argentina, a Decades-old Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory Has Been Reignited by Patagonia's Wildfires
As destructive wildfires spread through Argentina's Patagonia region, far-right influencers, politicians, commentators and a former military general have reignited a decades-old conspiracy theory that there is a "secret Jewish plan" to facilitate Israeli land purchases in the region.
Only a day after the fires began, an article published by a little-known local news site in Santa Cruz – a region 1,400 km (870 miles) south of the fires in Chubut – was the first to suggest Israeli tourists were setting fires.
Now Calafate, based in the glacier gateway town of Calafate, printed a regurgitation of a local radio station's interview with Martin Morales, a local resident who claimed he had prevented "two foreign tourists" from starting a fire at the national park in El Chaltén. The article includes a video taken by Morales in which he approaches a male tourist and instructs him in Spanish to put the fire out. While talking to the camera, Morales laments that the tourists "might be of Israeli origin." The tourist's apology in English is barely audible in the video.
That video soon spread on X and Instagram as the proof cited by both far-right and progressive anti-government accounts that Israelis were the culprits of Argentina's wildfires, with some users speculating that the tourist was a recently released IDF combat soldier and that his hat must be hiding his kippa. The tourist in the video was also edited onto a poster circulating on social media that reads: "Prevent fires. Expel the arsonist enemy. Israeli soldiers out of Argentina."
Spin-off theories also claimed that the fires were ignited by an Israeli-made military grenade that was found in Chubut by investigators. César Milani, the chief of the Argentine Armed Forces between 2013 and 2015, accused "a foreign state" of meddling in the fires in a post that included a picture of Milei posing with the Israeli flag. He stepped down following accusations that he committed crimes against humanity during the military junta dictatorship.
Over the weekend, a TV news interview with a local woman driving out from the fires after bringing food and supplies to firefighters went viral after she claimed that "everybody knows" the fires are intentional and that "Jews will buy these lands."
The claims echo Plan Andinia, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was, until this week, marginal and circulated mostly among far-right nationalists in the country. More recent iterations of the theory say that all Israeli tourists are soldiers in disguise, equipped with military-grade GPS and mapping technology that they are using to plan a so-called "second Israel" in Patagonia.
The high concentration of Israelis has long caused friction, and travelers have been the target of antisemitism and anti-Israeli violence in the past: In 2014, activists in Bariloche launched a campaign calling on local business owners to boycott Israeli tourists. A year later, in Lago Puelo, Chubut, 10 Israelis were robbed and beaten at an Israeli-owned hostel by four people later charged under Argentina's anti-discrimination law. "You come here to steal our Patagonia," the attackers reportedly shouted, referencing Plan Andinia. "Go, fucking Jews. Fuck Israelis."
The conspiracy theory that Argentine Jews operate secretly with the State of Israel, which sends its tourists to build a second Jewish country in Patagonia, was first circulated in 1971 by far-right, anti-Peronist commentator Walter Beveraggi Allende in a Catholic magazine. The belief spread among the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2026-01-1...dbc1de0000
As destructive wildfires spread through Argentina's Patagonia region, far-right influencers, politicians, commentators and a former military general have reignited a decades-old conspiracy theory that there is a "secret Jewish plan" to facilitate Israeli land purchases in the region.
Only a day after the fires began, an article published by a little-known local news site in Santa Cruz – a region 1,400 km (870 miles) south of the fires in Chubut – was the first to suggest Israeli tourists were setting fires.
Now Calafate, based in the glacier gateway town of Calafate, printed a regurgitation of a local radio station's interview with Martin Morales, a local resident who claimed he had prevented "two foreign tourists" from starting a fire at the national park in El Chaltén. The article includes a video taken by Morales in which he approaches a male tourist and instructs him in Spanish to put the fire out. While talking to the camera, Morales laments that the tourists "might be of Israeli origin." The tourist's apology in English is barely audible in the video.
That video soon spread on X and Instagram as the proof cited by both far-right and progressive anti-government accounts that Israelis were the culprits of Argentina's wildfires, with some users speculating that the tourist was a recently released IDF combat soldier and that his hat must be hiding his kippa. The tourist in the video was also edited onto a poster circulating on social media that reads: "Prevent fires. Expel the arsonist enemy. Israeli soldiers out of Argentina."
Spin-off theories also claimed that the fires were ignited by an Israeli-made military grenade that was found in Chubut by investigators. César Milani, the chief of the Argentine Armed Forces between 2013 and 2015, accused "a foreign state" of meddling in the fires in a post that included a picture of Milei posing with the Israeli flag. He stepped down following accusations that he committed crimes against humanity during the military junta dictatorship.
Over the weekend, a TV news interview with a local woman driving out from the fires after bringing food and supplies to firefighters went viral after she claimed that "everybody knows" the fires are intentional and that "Jews will buy these lands."
The claims echo Plan Andinia, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was, until this week, marginal and circulated mostly among far-right nationalists in the country. More recent iterations of the theory say that all Israeli tourists are soldiers in disguise, equipped with military-grade GPS and mapping technology that they are using to plan a so-called "second Israel" in Patagonia.
The high concentration of Israelis has long caused friction, and travelers have been the target of antisemitism and anti-Israeli violence in the past: In 2014, activists in Bariloche launched a campaign calling on local business owners to boycott Israeli tourists. A year later, in Lago Puelo, Chubut, 10 Israelis were robbed and beaten at an Israeli-owned hostel by four people later charged under Argentina's anti-discrimination law. "You come here to steal our Patagonia," the attackers reportedly shouted, referencing Plan Andinia. "Go, fucking Jews. Fuck Israelis."
The conspiracy theory that Argentine Jews operate secretly with the State of Israel, which sends its tourists to build a second Jewish country in Patagonia, was first circulated in 1971 by far-right, anti-Peronist commentator Walter Beveraggi Allende in a Catholic magazine. The belief spread among the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2026-01-1...dbc1de0000
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
