In my youth I had the opportunity to travel and spend some time in several countries and one of them was Spain, which marked a very special and important moment in my life.
I have very dear people in that country and Spanish friends whom I appreciate.
For all this, writing this blog represents a challenge for me, but knowing a little about Spanish society and due to the diplomatic altercation between Spain and Israel in recent days, it is worth my time to write this article at this time.
The president of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, and the prime minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo, visited Israel a little over a week ago and the Hamas terrorist organization praised and applauded the position of both European representatives in their hostile statements towards Israel.
What goes through the head of a president of a democratic country like Spain that represents the European community to express himself in this way in the midst of the beginning of such a traumatic, sensitive exchange of hostages and in the midst of a war conflict of the magnitude that Israel faces against the Palestinian Hamas terrorists who also receive financial and political support from several countries in the Islamic world and military support from Iran?
To analyze this, I think we should be very clear that the feeling of hatred that exists today in a large part of Spanish society towards Israel has roots in the classic anti-Semitism that arose in Spain during the period of the Inquisition, founded in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs and continued through the centuries.
The history of the Sephardic Jews who lived in Spain is very rich but also very tragic when the Jews in the period of the Inquisition were tortured, murdered and expelled by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain in 1492, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile with the help of the papal bull of Pope Sixtus IV. That Inquisition, which was particularly relentless in the persecution of Jews and Judeconversos, was transferred to Portugal and the colonies as well.
One of the main figures of the Spanish inquisition was the Castilian Dominican Tomás de Torquemada (1420-1498), assigned as First Inquisitor General of Castile and Aragon in the 15th century, who was described as the “hammer of heretics,” “ lightning of Spain” or “protector of his country”.
The abolition of the Spanish Inquisition was decreed in 1812, in the courts of Cádiz, but it did not take effect in Spain until 1834. I mean, it did not take much time in history to understand where this hatred of Jews and Israel comes from today.
The anti-Jewish sentiment and hatred despite the disappearance of this cruel organization was inherited and is recorded in expressions, stigmas and stereotypes that exist against Jews and that one living in the Iberian Peninsula can perceive to this day.
It is true that the Inquisition has already passed, Spain is mostly a secular society. Today there are the progressives, the left and other groups that are not religious but that in their DNA are the old medieval preconceptions that led the Inquisition to massacre, torture, persecute and expel the Jews from Spain.
There are many anti-Jewish expressions in Spanish society that not even the Spaniards themselves perceive.
Of course you can criticize Israel, but when you are not impartial, when you are not honest and when the deep hatred of the Jews exceeds everything unimaginable, we are facing a serious problem that Europe and the West will have to face sooner or later with the advancement of Islamic extremism.
Pedro Sánchez grew up with the same press that only he allows on his plane to Israel, but not that which is critical of his management. And that press has been mainly anti-Israel for decades.
Some clear examples of how Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is treated are perceived in the Spanish media in general, but above all the newspaper El Pais stands out in its propaganda and campaign against Israel constantly.
For example, long before October 7, 2023, every time Hamas launched thousands of rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in recent years, no mention of what the Israeli population was suffering appeared in any of those media. Immediately that Israel responded to the initial attack by Hamas, as any country would do, the Spanish press in large headlines placed in the news for the first time “Israel attacks the Gaza Strip” which means that previously there was no attack for the press that was initiated by Hamas nor was it mentioned, suddenly Israel defends itself by counterattacking and now it turns out that Israel is the aggressor. Another example of the treatment of the Spanish press towards its pro-Palestinian bias is clearly seen in the photos that it decides to publish, for example before October 7, every time there was a Palestinian terrorist attack in Israel and where there were Israeli children who were murdered, photos of those Israeli children were not shown or used but when the children are Palestinians the photos are shown in a well magnified way to try to destroy and vilify the image of Israel. It is true that after October 7, due to the barbaric massacre of Hamas, this media had no choice but to start showing some images of Israeli and kidnapped children despite their partisan ideology that is against Israel. Another special mention is the definition of terrorist, for the majority of the Spanish media, the members of Hamas are not terrorists but ”militia”, a softer word that does not necessarily fit reality. On October 7 the “militia” proofed that they are terrorists. In reality in Israel we already knew that. Here we call a spade a spade. I recommend looking in a dictionary to see the difference between terrorism and militia.
The list of manipulations by the press to induce the majority of the population on how they should be indoctrinated and define who is the evil one and who is the poor victim is enormous .
The Spain in which Sanchez was raised and educated has almost the same press as it did 30 or 40 years ago.
Anti-Semitism in Spain and hatred towards Israel is not only installed in the less educated classes but is also part of the middle, upper, intellectual class, and the so-called progressive, leftist class that dominates the media.
For Sanchez and all that sector that believes themselves to be morally absolute and superior, their memory should be refreshed that they should worry more about the racism that exists in Spanish society not only against Jews but also against gypsies, against Moors, against blacks. Ask the Brazilian soccer player from Real Madrid Vinicius what it means to be black in Spain when he visits the stadiums of his opposing teams in that country and what type of insults he receives for his skin color, and the Sudacas can enter that list , a derogatory term towards any citizen born in South America.
Mr. President Pedro Sanchez, worry more about trying to resolve the accusations that your country received from the president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019 where in a letter addressed to Felipe VI and the Pope he demanded an apology for the conquest of his country 500 years ago at the hands of Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlan, where it is said that it was an invasion where there were massacres, violations against human rights, against thousands and thousands of indigenous populations, churches were built on top of the Aztec temples, their lands were stolen, indigenous people were exploited by the Spanish conquerors.
And in relation to López Labrador’s reference, would it also be good for Sanchez to be concerned about knowing what historical responsibility Spain had in the exploitation of the discovery of America and if there was genocide in that conquest?
Mr. President Pedro Sanchez, the Hamas terrorist organization reminds us of some of the most horrendous chapters that the Jewish people went through in the Inquisition and the Nazi Holocaust, whose common causes were and are the desire to destroy the Jewish people. In Spain, its ministers of culture and youth did not condemn the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7. This type of position does not help young people to be properly informed about the Middle East conflict and in this way they remain confused, without real knowledge and become easy prey and are easily influenced by the anti-Israeli press.
I must clarify that not all of Spain is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel and I know that there are also many people in Spain from different sectors who know how to distinguish the Middle East conflict without that cloudy vision.
Proof of this and a light in the darkness is the politician, writer and journalist born in Catalonia Pilar Rahola, brilliant in her knowledge and wisdom of the Middle East conflict, who expresses herself with great clarity and knowledge.
Author
Adiel Wajsman
Licensed Tourism Guide
December 3, 2023