Austrian Ariel Muzicant, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, recommended that Jews and Israeli citizens not travel to Spain due to what he considers a climate of anti-Semitism unprecedented since the time of the Inquisition.
In a statement, Muzicant accused the Spanish government of creating, after the attack by the terrorist group Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the start of the war in Gaza, “an unbearable anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli climate in Spain, the likes of which have not been seen since the Inquisition in 1492”, through several “anti-Semitic statements and actions”.
“Yesterday, the Spanish Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, stated that the danger for Europe is not Iranian missiles, but Israel. The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, intends to legalize the stay of hundreds of thousands of illegal refugees, the majority of whom are Muslims”, accused Muzicant.
Muzicant stated that “the few Jews who live in Spain do so in extreme fear” of terrorist attacks.
Founded in Switzerland, the World Jewish Congress represents Jewish communities in over one hundred countries and promotes actions to combat anti-Semitism, educate about the Holocaust and support Israel.
Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), is one of the most critical Western leaders of Israel.
Before his criticism of the US and Israeli war against Iran, he called the Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip (a conflict currently under ceasefire) “genocide”, recognized the Palestinian State and joined the case that South Africa filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), among other measures.
