“What happened in Spain is of great concern because it has not happened for many years,” said Isaac Benzaquen, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain.
Situations recorded in Spain in recent weeks, in addition to news and reports on social media, include an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Barcelona, graffiti on private homes and an incident at a synagogue in the Spanish city of Melilla. An enclave in the north of Africa, said Isaac Benzachwen.
In Melilla, where “coexistence has been a model,” the federation’s president highlighted an incident where a group tried to enter a synagogue during prayers, an incident he felt “signals that something is changing.” “Very disturbing.”
For Isaac Benzaquen, “all this is happening in Spain, it is happening because of the conflict” between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza, “but the news is not positive and does not help the solution “.
The head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain said he had “no doubt” that recent statements by ministers and other Spanish politicians “create anti-Semitism”.
Ministers from the left-wing and far-left platform Unidas Podemos have criticized Israel for its actions in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.
Isaac Benzaquen considered statements made by Spanish ministers to be anti-Semitic, such as attributing “war crimes” to Israel or talking about “genocide” committed by the Israelis.
“Unfortunately, a section of the government has a different stance [da do primeiro-ministro, o socialista Pedro Sánchez] and is asymmetric and adds nothing to the solution and creates a tense atmosphere in the Jewish community,” he said.
The Spanish ministers’ statements were already considered “immoral”, “disgraceful” and “conforming to terrorism” by Israel, the Madrid government responded in a statement saying that Tel Aviv’s accusations were false, “Any responsible politician can be free. Express positions as representatives of a political party in a full democracy like Spain” and Only the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister speak on behalf of the executive in matters of foreign policy.
Today in Madrid, Isaac Benzaquen addressed the annual report of the Observatory on Antisemitism, founded in 2009 by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain and the Movimento Contra a Intolerância association.
According to the association’s president and co-director of the Observatory, Esteban Ibarra, there has been an “explosive and massive anti-Semitic expression” on social media, especially on social media, by the Hamas group since October 7. Considered terrorists by the United States and the European Union, they attacked civilians in Israeli territory, killing about 1,400 people. Another 5,400 were injured and Hamas took 239 hostages.
In response to the attack, Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip, killing more than 8,000 and injuring more than 20,000 in the Palestinian territories, according to Hamas.
Esteban Ibarra asked politicians and the media for prudence and responsibility when using language about the conflict, as well as “prudence in the statements of Spain and the European Union”.
On the other hand, he lamented that the distinction of “Israel as a nation” was not established in the texts, since “the government and the army are one, and the whole country is different.”
“If this divestment is not carried out, we are demonizing and stigmatizing the entire community,” he said.
“We have no problem expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people or criticizing a country’s policy or mobilizing for peace, no one there wants wars or violence,” he added. “Because they harm a lot of people,” it was revealed.
“They are very afraid, they are persecuted”, as well as “people with dual nationality and friends of the Jewish people and Jewish communities” who contacted these organizations and Israelis living in Spain, said Esteban Ibarra.
All of these people, he added, “are suffering, if not the entire community, from the outbreak, the biggest manifestation of anti-Semitism.”
In 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 13 cases of anti-Semitism were registered in Spain out of a total of 1,869 hate crimes.
Esteban Ibarra, the observatory he co-directs today, was founded in 2009 because the authorities did not detect cases of anti-Semitism, which, in his opinion, still continue.
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