spain 2009

 

 

The Jewish population is estimated at 50,000; however, the number of registered Jews does not exceed 14,000. The biggest communities are in Madrid, Barcelona and the Costa del Sol (Malaga).

The largest anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe during Operation Cast Lead took place in Madrid and Barcelona. Similar events were organized by local Islamic communities in Pamplona (Navarra), Oviedo, Cordoba, Seville and Almeria, as well as in Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish possessions in North Morocco with large Muslim populations.

The participation of a representative of the governmental Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) confirmed that the protest organized in central Madrid on January 10, 2009, was supported by the administration. Israeli flags were burned and cries such as “Israel assassin” and “This is not a war, it is genocide” were heard.

Afterward, several hundred, mainly Muslim, extremists, tried to approach the US embassy, which was highly protected by the Spanish police. They therefore proceeded to the Israel embassy, where they broke 37 glass windows of the building, but could not reach the embassy itself, which is located on one of the highest floors. Two policemen were injured.

A day before a similar mass rally took place in Barcelona, with the equation between Israel and Nazi Germany a principal motif. Interior councilor Jean Saura of the Generalitat in Catalonia, a radical leftist who led the demonstration, subsequently canceled a public candle lighting ceremony planned for International Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27. A City Hall representative explained that it was inappropriate to commemorate the Jewish Holocaust when there was “a Palestinian holocaust going on.” Even after the end of the war, radical leftists continued to incite against Israel and against Jews in Spain.

The role of extreme right groups in anti-Israel and antisemitic events was evident in Spain, too. On January 30, a man wearing military garb attacked the outer wall of the reconstructed Shlomo Ben Adret synagogue, in the Cal neighborhood of Barcelona, with a baseball bat and injured an employee. The perpetrator, a member of the extreme right Movimiento Social Republicano (MSR), was arrested. Many bystanders witnessed the incident but no one intervened. Previously, on January 8 the MSR signature was painted on the Chabad-Lubavitch Center in the city. During electoral periods, MSR is part of the Democracia Nacional platform, supported by French Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

In April, an anti-fascist group shouted antisemitic insults at the president of the Spanish Jewish Federation when he was invited to speak at the University of Madrid, while in May, Israel´s ambassador to Spain was verbally abused as he walked home from a soccer match in Madrid. Three fans following the ambassador called him “a dirty Jew,” “Jew bastard” and “Jew murderer.” In addition, cartoons showing bloodthirsty Jews killing children or Jesus Christ were published in several Spanish newspapers, such as El Pais, El Correo and El Tiempo.

The Valencia Popular Party (main center right political party) appointed Cesar Augusto Asensio, as its regional secretary general. In an article published in 1979, Asensio described the Holocaust as the greatest fraud in history. The political group Iniciativa del Poble Valencia called for Asensio’s immediate resignation because of his "Nazi position." Asensio apologized for the article, describing it as “an adolescent error” (see http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_23483.shtml#ixzz0tPUgUDOC).

In January, Israeli ambassador Raphael Shutz wrote to Jose Montilla, Socialist president of the Regional Government (Generalitat) of Catalonia, expressing his deep concern about the welfare and security of the Jewish community in Barcelona and Catalonia. Following a meeting between Montilla and Shutz on January 20, Montilla approved an act for the commemoration of International Holocaust Day (Jan. 27), with an official candle lighting ceremony at the Plaza St. Jaume. Only lower level Jewish leaders attended. Other official events in Madrid were a ceremony held jointly by the Madrid Autonomous Community Assembly with the Jewish Community of Madrid and a session "The Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity at the Auditorium of the Complutense University of Madrid, attended, among others, by foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, José Bono (PSOE), president of the Spanish Congress, Ana Matos (PP), vice-president of the Congress, and the Israeli ambassador.

            Some 3,000 people, both Jews and non-Jews, gathered from all over Spain at the Israeli embassy on January 18 to demonstrate solidarity with the state of Israel

Among the participants were journalist Herman Tersch, Catalan  journalist and ex-politician Pilar Rahola, and deputies from the Madrid governmental PSOE.

According to the results of a survey published in February by the ADL (Anti- Defamation League), conducted in several European countries, 74 percent of those polled in Spain said it was "probably true" that Jews held too much sway over global financial markets. This was the highest percentage in the survey. Nearly two-thirds of Spanish respondents thought Jews were more loyal to Israel than they were to their home countries; and 44 percent believed it was "probably true" that Jews still talked too much about the Holocaust.

In a final verdict handed down on October 9, the Barcelona Appeals Court sentenced and fined four members of the Nazi gang Círculo de Estudios Indoeuropeos (CEI – founded in Valencia in 1997) for selling and exporting books promoting Nazi ideology and inciting to genocide. They included the president of the group and the owner of the now closed Kalki Bookstore (both got 3 ½ years in prison). Since all were minors at the time of the offense in 2003, they are not named in full. Following police pressure, CEI dissolved voluntarily in 2005 and closed its bookstore and journal in 2006, when the Israelite Community of Barcelona, SOS Racism and Amical Mathausen won an initial suit in a penal court. In an important legal precedent, the judges considered documents cited that mocked or banalized the Holocaust as being equivalent to justifying the Holocaust. This case may be compared to that of the Europa Bookstore, whose owner Pedro Varela was also convicted of justifying the Holocaust (see ASW 1997-8 onward).