spain 2006
In one of the gravest attacks on a Jewish individual in
Europe, a young Muslim stabbed a Jewish client with a knife in a Malaga Jewish butcher's shop in February. The majority of the media and public
opinion blamed Israel for the summer confrontations in Lebanon and Gaza, sometimes lacing their attacks with antisemitic overtones. For the first
time in Spain, a court sentenced two neo-Nazis to imprisonment for inciting
antisemitism and xenophobia on the Internet.
the jewish community
The Jewish population was estimated in
2006 at about 50,000; however, the number of registered Jews does not exceed
14,000. 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 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.
POLITICAL
PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
The Far Right and the Radical Left
The extreme right has no parliamentary
representation. Spain has a long history of fringe, openly xenophobic and/or
neo-Nazi/far right activity, expressed by small parties and groups whose
ideology ranges from traditionalism to extreme radicalism. Despite repeated
electoral failures, they usually form an alliance a few weeks before an
election in an attempt to win parliamentary seats. Such was the case for the
March 2004 general elections, when they formed the Frente Español, the
extreme right platform, led by Democracia Nacional and supported by French
Front National leader Jean-Marie le Pen. General elections are scheduled to take
place in or before March 2008.
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
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. In September, some 25
skinheads from Madrid, engaged in a fight with a group of extreme leftists,
using sticks, iron bars and chains. The police arrested five skinheads; four of
them minors. The skinhead movement attracts an increasing number of
adolescents to its ranks, seemingly because of its violence, which serves as an
integrating factor.
Izquierda Unida, 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 members of both
parties hold extremist views on Jews, Zionism and Israel, a minority are active
in demonstrating their support. In
addition, hundreds of small anti-establishment, mostly
anti-Zionist, leftist groups, though differing in origin and ideology, unite to
attack 'fascists', i.e., any right-wing organization, including the
conservative right Popular Party (PP), and demonstrate in support of the
Palestinians or against 'American imperialism'
The
Muslim Community
There are Islamic parties in the Spanish
autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, but none in mainland Spain.
However, the number of Islamic organizations is increasing there because of the
rapidly growing Sunni and Shi`i population (the latter from Pakistan, among other countries). In 2006 there were arrests in Torremolinos, Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque region, among other places, for alleged membership in Islamic
terrorist groups.
Although the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad
(see ASW 2005) were not reprinted in
Spanish newspapers, they aroused a heated debate in Spain over the limits of
freedom of expression and respect for religion. According to a survey conducted
by the Elcano Institute Barometer and based on 1,202 interviews carried out in
March, 90 percent of Spaniards considered Muslim countries to be authoritarian,
79 percent to be intolerant and 68 percent to be violent. Moreover, 88 percent viewed
the violent Muslim reaction to the cartoons negatively and 38 percent believed
that the affair was manipulated and incited by governments in Muslim countries. Nevertheless,
57 percent disapproved of their publication.
ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES
Violence, Vandalism and Harassment
In one of the gravest attacks on a Jewish individual in
Europe in 2006, a young Muslim stabbed a Jewish client with a knife in a Malaga Jewish butcher's shop in February. Police arrested the attacker and the victim was
hospitalized with serious injuries. The perpetrator confessed that he had acted
under the influence of sermons of the imam in the nearby mosque.
Twelve swastikas were painted on the front
of the Center of Jewish Information in Toledo on 25 July. In addition, a
well-known Toledo bookshop selling books of Jewish interest, Casa de Jacob, owned
by a convert to Judaism, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti and an attempt was made to set it alight.
In November, during a soccer match between
Deportivo La Coruna and Osasune, Osasune fans, waving Palestinian flags,
shouted antisemitic and other slurs at Dudu Awate, a Deportivo player from Israel. Awate had been insulted in the past by Osasune fans. In this context, the
Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the European Council urged Spain to strengthen its efforts to prevent and punish racist and xenophobic manifestations
at football matches and combat racist groups.
The War
in Lebanon and Antisemitic Propaganda
Although the majority of the media and public opinion were
in no doubt that Hizballah and Hamas had triggered the confrontations in Lebanon and Gaza in the summer, they nevertheless blamed Israel for them, sometimes lacing their
attacks with antisemitic overtones. For example, the newspaper pro-PP La Razon, published an article on 14 July, entitled "Judiadas" (a pejorative reference to
Jewish acts).
The Spanish government was even accused
by the conservative right − principally, the PP − of antisemitism
following Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero's claim that Israel was using
"abusive force" in Lebanon and his implication, at a meeting, on 20 July, of
the Socialist Youth movement (where he donned a kaffiyah handed to him by one
of the participants), that Hizballah and Israel were no different from each
other. Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos fiercely denied that the government
was antisemitic. Also in July, Socialists from Madrid and other leftists from
the Madrid Regional Autonomy and Madrid City Hall backed a demonstration in the
city of several hundred participants, many of them Muslims "against war and
against the crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians."
In August, the cover of the neo-Nazi periodical
Barcelona, which is published in Argentina and distributed in Spain, showed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with
US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, accompanied by the following text:
"Tolerance: a black women and a Jew decide the fate of humanity."
In September, the anarchist Post section
of the Spanish CGT (General Confederation of Labor) published a declaration
denouncing the issue of a postage stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of
diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel. It demanded that the Spanish
government boycott Israel and the stamp because, among other reasons, it "was killing
thousands of civilians" and "destroying infrastructure." The 600,000 stamps issued by Spanish Post were rapidly sold
out.
An article entitled "Read the Talmud,
Goyim," by Manuel F. Trillo, appeared on 13 August on the radical left,
pro-Arab, antisemitic website www.rebelion.org,
formerly a print magazine distributed at Spanish universities. The article,
which is based on old antisemitic texts about the Talmud, reappeared on the
Islamic site www.webislam.com in early October.
responses to antisemitism and racism
Holocaust
Commemoration
The main event marking the official day commemorating the
"Holocaust and the Preventionion of Crimes against Humanity" took place on 26
January at Complutense University of Madrid. It was attended by the king, the
president, members of his cabinet and other high-ranking officials and party
representatives. At all official events, six candles were lit in honor of the
six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis; 1.5 million children annihilated in
the gas chambers; Spanish victims murdered in concentration camps; Romani
victims and other communities persecuted by the Nazis; the Righteous Among the
Nations who risked their lives to save the persecuted; and survivors who found refuge
in Israel where they could reconstruct their lives and maintain their identity.
Official
and Public Activity
In January, the University of Lleida (Catalunya) organized
a course on Hebrew Thought. Fifteen pupils were expected but seventy arrived.
In view of the interest, some twenty pupils created Tarbut (Culture), whose
purpose is "to deepen knowledge of Hebrew culture."
About 150 participants attended the
second Global Congress of Imams and Rabbis in Seville in March. The first
congress was held in Brussels in January 2005. These encounters, which are sponsored
by the French foundation Hommes de Parole (Men of Their Word) are designed to
promote dialogue between Jews and Muslims and establish bonds of mutual
understanding.
In June, the Federation of Jewish
Communities of Spain (FCJE) awarded the Prize Senador Angel Pulido 2006 to all
those who had worked toward the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel twenty years previously. Former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez accepted the prize
on behalf of the recipients. In 2005, the first year of the award, it was
granted to the Madrid Assembly for its annual ceremony, held since 2000,
honoring the victims of the Holocaust.
Legal
Activity
On 10 April, police in Barcelona raided the Europa book
store, which specializes in the distribution of neo-Nazi materials, and re-arrested
Pedro Varela, its owner. Varela's detention is related to his links to ultra-right
organizations. In November 1998, Varela was sentenced to five years in prison
for advocating genocide, inciting racial hatred and distributing xenophobic
materials (see ASW 1998/99). He appealed his
sentence before the Constitutional Court, claiming Article 607.2 of the
Criminal Code, stipulating imprisonment for denying the Holocaust or justifying
the crime of genocide, was unconstitutional because it limited freedom of
expression. The verdict of the Constitutional Court was still pending.
Two brothers were sentenced to
one and two years of imprisonment for inciting to xenophobia and antisemitism on
a web page. They were arrested in 2004 by the Catalonian police after they had
set up the site, which included comments such as "The Holocaust was a
holostory," and praise for Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and the Ku Klux Klan. The
police also confiscated weapons, and antisemitic, xenophobic and neo-Nazi
propaganda and insignia from their home in Tárrega. This was the first
sentencing in Spain for disseminating material on the Internet under Art. 510
of the Penal Code, regarding incitement to hatred or violence against groups or
associations motivated by racism or antisemitism.
