Why It Is Immoral To Visit Spain
The most antisemitic nation in Europe teaches little kids to send hate mail to the Israeli embassy
No, Spanish kids don’t write letters to Santa Claus. Instead they write to Israelis, asking them to drop dead. Seriously.
A virulently anti-Israel tribunal likened to a “lynching” by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid is the most recent in a spate of anti-Semitic incidents instigated by Spaniards. This flurry of attacks onIsrael has caused us to pause and ask, What is happening on the Iberian peninsula and what can we do to combat it?
Gathering at the beginning of this month in Barcelona, which in the 13th century hosted one of Jewish history’s most illustrious communities, the tribunal, which did not include a representative ofIsrael, was tasked with examining “on what level the European Union and its member states are complicit in… violations on the part of Israel of the rights of the nation of Palestine.”
The Israeli Embassy said it was no coincidence that the “Rusell Tribunal,” named after British philosopher Bertrand Russell, was held in Spain and that it was funded by Barcelona’s city hall, noting the “worrying situation of anti-Semitism” in the country.
At the end of February, meanwhile, the embassy received dozens of postcards written by Spanish schoolchildren with messages such as “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you.”
And in mid-February, Ambassador to Spain Rafi Shotz protested the display of two pieces of art at the International Art Fair in Madrid with virulently anti-Israel messages. One is a sculpture of a menorah sprouting from the barrel of an Uzi sub-machine gun. The other is a highly realistic polyurethane sculpture of a hassid standing on the shoulders of a Catholic priest who is kneeling on a prostrate Muslim worshiper, called “Stairway to Heaven.”
In an interview with El Pais, Catalan artist Eugenio Merino, who made both sculptures, defended his art with the claim that “Stairway to Heaven” has been bought by a Belgian Jew for €45,000.
Ambassador Shotz, who was verbally assaulted last year with epithets such as “dirty Jew,” “Jew bastard” and “Jew murderer” when he and his wife returned from a soccer game accompanied by police, chose not to demand the removal of the displays, fearing it would spark additional anti-Semitic incidents.
Spain has a long, infamous history of anti-Semitism that pre-dates the Inquisition. For centuries after the 1492 Expulsion, Spaniards enforced the ban against Jews setting foot on Spanish soil. Francisco Franco’s fascist, pro-Arab dictatorship that ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 stoked anti-Israel sentiments.
And it never stops. I hear that their economy is suffering, with an unemployment rate of 19%. I pray for it to double. Let’s all do our best to avoid their products.
- Aggie