SPAIN 2005

 

A relatively low level of antisemitic activity was recorded in Spain in 2005. This might be partly attributed to police crackdowns on several neo-Nazi groups. The government banned transmissions of the Hizballah station al-Manar to Latin America via the Spanish satellite Hispasat.

 

the JEWISH COMMUNITY

Although the Jewish population is estimated at about 40,000, the number of registered Jews does not exceed 14,000. The majority emigrated from Spanish-speaking countries such as Northern Morocco and South America, mainly Argentina. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), which represents Jewish interests to the government, consists of thirteen traditional and Orthodox communities, the largest of which are located in Madrid, Barcelona and on the Costa del Sol (Malaga). There are Jewish day schools in Barcelona, Madrid and Melilla. A cultural magazine, Raíces (Roots) appears on a quarterly basis and is sold also in South America. The Federation of Jewish Communities has an Internet radio, Radio Sefarad – www.radiosefarad.com. The Segovia-Israel Association of Cultural Relations studies the influence of Jewish culture in Spain. The Spanish government, under Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has developed closer relations with all religious minorities, including the Jewish community, than did the previous Popular Party (PP) government.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Far Right and Extreme Left

The Spanish extreme right has no parliamentary representation. Spain has a long history of openly xenophobic and/or neo-Nazi fringe far right activity, expressed by small parties and groups whose ideology ranges from extreme radicalism to traditionalism. Despite repeated electoral failures, they usually form an alliance a few weeks before an election, in order to gain parliamentary seats. Such was the case for the March 2004 general elections, when they formed the Frente Español (see ASW 2004).

Small traditionalist fascist parties such as Falange Española de las JONS, Falange Española Independiente (FEI) and Falange Española Autentica participate in elections at the local, regional and general level, but are concerned mainly with their own survival. Confederacion de ex Combatientes is an umbrella organization linking associations of veterans who yearn for Spain’s fascist past.

Neighborhood and other neo-Nazi groups utilize websites abroad (such as www.nuevorden.net or www.libreopinión.com) in order to avoid prosecution under the 1995 Penal Code. They adopted this strategy after legal action was taken against the Europa bookstore (see ASW 1997/8 and subsequent reports; see also below).The soccer stadium is fertile ground for recruiting members to such organizations. Twenty one members of the Spanish section of Blood & Honour were arrested in December 2005 (see below).

Small anti-establishment left-wing groups, though differing in origin and ideology, unite to attack ‘fascists’ and demonstrate in favor of the Palestinian people, or against ‘American imperialism’. On 20 November fascists commemorated the anniversary of Franco’s death, while leftists demonstrated against them.

The United Left party, whose membership includes Communists and other leftists, is the only parliamentary party to the left of the ruling Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español). Though some of members of both parties hold extremist views on Jews, Zionism and Israel, a minority of activists within them are more sympathetic.

 

The Islamist Network

There are no Muslim parties in mainland Spain; however, a number of Islamist organizations operate in the autonomous North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which have a rapidly growing Muslim population.

There is an increasing threat of Islamic terrorism in Spain. According to judiciary sources, 137 persons linked to violent Islamic organizations were arrested in 2005, a rise of 59 percent compared to the previous year.

On 19 November then Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso announced that police had arrested eleven persons on suspicion of belonging to a cell that financed and gave logistical support to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algiers, which is connected to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and al-Qa`ida. A month later, police dismantled a network that trained and sent terrorists to Iraq. Eighteen persons were arrested, including their leader, a 25-year-old Iraqi, close to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, operative chief of al-Qa`ida (killed in June 2006).

During a police raid throughout Spain in December 2005, materials for the manufacture of explosives were confiscated. Fifteen members of the so-called Comando Dixan were detained. The interior minister claimed they had not been planning to act within Spain.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español which came to power immediately after the commuter train bombings in Madrid in March 2004, believes in dialogue and promotes an Alliance of Civilizations in an attempt to reduce misunderstandings between the western world and Islam. This approach of dialogue toward Islamist, and also Basque, terrorism, is condemned by PP, the main opposition party.

 

ANTISEMITIC AND RACIST ACTIVITIES

It is estimated that some 600 violent attacks on members of minority groups (immigrants, religious minorities, prostitutes and homosexuals) are committed each year in Madrid by neo-Nazis. Only about one-third are reported to the police. Testifying before the Madrid Regional Assembly Presidential Committee, which is studying the level of racism in the capital district, Esteban Ibarra, president of the Movement against Intolerance, said on 24 March that racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of xenophobia were on the rise, especially in the wake of the March 2004 terrorist attacks. According to Ibarra, juveniles were involved in neo-Nazi groups and were ready to use violence.

Ibarra also presented the Special RAXEN 2005 Report on “racism and ultra-violence in soccer” in Zaragoza on 15 November. The report revealed that during the 2004−05 soccer season Spain suffered the largest wave of racism in its history. Moreover, racist and xenophobic behavior was organized rather than sporadic. Although the level of vandalism dropped in the 1990s following the establishment of a commission to deal with violence in sport, ultra-right groups were now infiltrating soccer stadiums. On 22 December FIFA (International Federation of Football Association) fined the Spanish Football Federation 60,000 euros following racist calls against a black player during a friendly match between Spain and the United Kingdom played on 17 November in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

 

Violence and Vandalism

On 17 April 2005 a memorial to the Jewish community of Jaen, banished from Spain in 1492, was defaced. The menorah was damaged and a swastika painted on a plaque. A complaint was filed with the police.

A group of students, probably left-wingers, insulted and attempted to assault Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli ambassador to Spain, at Valencia University on 1 November.

 

Propaganda

In May 2005 the Barcelona Municipal Government issued a teacher’s handbook, Republicans i Republicanes als camps de concentració Nazis, on the ‘holocaust’ of Spanish Republicans. A small part of the book, dedicated to “the Nazi genocide and other genocides,” mentions two problems today which it alleged were similar to the Nazi genocide: Israel’s security ‘wall’ and the treatment of Taliban prisoners at the Guantanamo US military base. After protests from Jewish groups in Barcelona which had discovered the content of the handbooks prior to distribution to teachers, the municipal government decided to expunge “anything that could hurt the sensitivity of the Jewish people.” A Jewish professor of Jewish history at Barcelona University, Jaime Vandor, assisted the municipal government in this process.

                The Libreria Europa bookshop which distributes antisemitic material, reopened in Barcelona at the beginning of 2005. Pedro Varela, who owns the shop, is awaiting appeal on his indictment for racism (see ASW 2000/1). In March 2005 US white supremacist David Duke (see US) spoke at the bookshop. He was interrupted by some fifty protestors.

The Atman Foundation for Dialogue among Civilizations, a think-tank linked to the publishers of the newspaper El Pais and the Socialist Party, invited professor of Islamic Studies Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen (see ASW 2002/3), to lecture at its first seminar in Madrid. Ramadan was banned from entering the United States and France due to his alleged support of a terrorist organization. Ramadan’s presence led to the non-attendance of several invitees, including PM Zapetero and two members of the opposition Popular Party, as well as the Israeli ambassador to Spain. The Victims of Terrorism Association also protested.

 

attitudes toward the holocaust and the nazi era

In December 2004, 27 January was declared by Royal Decree as Holocaust Memorial Day. On 27 January 2005 politicians from across the political spectrum gathered at a memorial ceremony with representatives of Spain’s Jewish community and survivors of the extermination camps. Six candles were lit in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi camps. Another was lit for the almost 6,000 Spanish republicans who died in concentration camps and two more were dedicated to murdered Roma and those who risked their lives to save the persecuted.

An Israeli visiting Spain has reportedly helped authorities to get closer to tracking down Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim, who has been living in hiding for years. Spanish police were expecting the imminent arrest of Heim, whose notorious medical experiments on concentration camp victims at Buchenwald and Mauthausen earned him the nickname ‘Dr. Death’. Heim, 91, considered one of the two most-wanted Nazi war criminals still alive, is believed to be living in the Costa Brava area. However, police in Spain are cautious, saying that they had not found Heim during recent searches.

 

RESPONSES TO ANTISEMITISM and RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

Official and Public Activity

Following its ban on broadcasts from Hizballah’s al-Manar TV station in November 2004, the government stopped al-Manar transmissions to Latin America via the Spanish satellite Hispasat in June 2005.

The Spanish government is an active participant in the OSCE Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. Under the current Socialist administration, a team of experts from the Foreign Affairs, Justice and Education Ministries is working to implement Holocaust studies in Spanish schools. The Foundation for Pluralism and Coexistence created in 2004 by the Ministry of Justice funds non-religious cultural, educational and social integration programs for the Jewish, Muslim and Protestant religions (see ASW 2004).

            A symposium on ‘Jewish-Christian dialogue’ was organized by Madrid’s Jewish community and the Catholic Center for Jewish-Christian Studies, on the occasion of the launching of the book Catholicism and Judaism: 40 years of “Nostra Aetate” by the Center.

Rabbi Israel Singer, then chairman of the governing board of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), gave the keynote address to the Congress on Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue in Bilbao organized by the Catholic organization Pax Romana and UNESCO and co-hosted by the WJC. The event was attended by leading representatives of various Christian denominations as well as Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish leaders and scholars. Singer said that 40 years of dialogue between Catholics and Jews following the 1965 Vatican Nostra Aetate declaration could serve as a role model for a rapprochement with the Islamic world.

            Cordoba, in southern Spain, hosted the third OSCE Conference on Antisemitism and Other Forms of Intolerance in June.

 

Judicial Activity

On 1 March the Catalonian police dismantled one of four major groups that were active in the distribution of neo-Nazi material in Spain. A 21 year-old man, responsible for the New Glory company which sold such propaganda, was arrested. Twenty-one members of the Spanish branch of the neo-Nazi British group Blood & Honor were also arrested on 27 April in Madrid, Seville, Jaen, Burgos and Zaragoza. They were accused of advocating ‘genocide’, the possession and trafficking of arms, and crimes against basic human rights. According to investigators, the organization sought to increase its popularity by holding rock concerts throughout Spain, where xenophobic and antisemitic messages were disseminated. Supporters came from heterogenous backgrounds and occupations. Four of the arrested, accused of selling arms, Nazi books and xenophobic music, were given prison sentences.

On 16 September police in Valencia arrested the alleged head of an anti-establishment group of the extreme right which advertised itself on the web. Some twenty associated neo-Nazis were also arrested. Nine were send to prison within the next two days. Three of the detainees were from the military.

On 26 October the authorities arrested nine people, described as skinheads, as they were about to attack a mosque with petrol bombs in the Catalonian province of Tarragona. The accused had been observed a few hours previously spray-painting fascist and xenophobic graffiti on a mosque in the town of Reus. Police said the suspects were aged between 15 and 22 years.

These arrests followed the detention in Barcelona of six people linked to a neo-Nazi political party on charges of defending genocide. The accused were members of the National European State Party (Estado Nacional Europeo − ENE), and worked for a racist and antisemitic magazine called Intemperie. The publication lauds the policies of Adolf Hitler and opposes immigrants, blacks, Jews and homosexuals.