The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) considers that the statements of the second vice-president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, and the minister and general secretary of Podem, Ione Belarra, who have denounced "war crimes" in the incursion from Israel to Gaza and have spoken of "genocide", they are "constitutive of anti-Semitism".
This was said by the president of the FCJE, Isaac Benzaquén, who cited the definition of anti-Semitism of the International Alliance for the Remembrance of the Holocaust to justify the accusation and asked the Spanish Executive to speak with a " only voice" about Israel.
In this regard, Benzaquén recalled that the President of the Central Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Head of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, did speak out in a "clear and conclusive" manner and condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas that triggered the conflict.
For his part, the president of Moviment contra la Intolerancia and co-director of the Anti-Semitism Observatory in Spain, Esteban Ibarra, warned: "There are Israelis living here who have called us and told us that they are very afraid, that they have been harassed This whole group, if not society as a whole, is affected by the outbreak, the tremendous emergency of anti-Semitism that we are experiencing right now".
Ibarra assumed that "criticism of Israeli policy" is "legitimate", like those made against any other state, but he also warned that holding the Jewish people responsible for the actions of the Israeli Government and the "demonization" of Jewish people are indeed "anti-Semitism".
"There is great concern to the extent that these demonstrations are having a very negative impact on the life of the Jewish community; life has not come to a standstill, and schools and synagogues are still open, but there is a lot of concern because what has happened has not happened in Spain for years", lamented Benzaquén.
