J50 Forum<\/a> in Jerusalem. The forum, an initiative of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, brought together in Jerusalem last week dozens of groups working to counter anti-Israel policy and content.<\/p>\nOf the E.U.’s large economies, Spain under S\u00e1nchez has adopted the most hostile position toward Israel. S\u00e1nchez called it \u201ca genocidal state\u201d in 2025, shortly before Madrid recognized Palestinian statehood. Spain has imposed a blanket embargo on defense sales to Israel and is one of four E.U. member states that have banned products made or marketed by Israelis in Judea and Samaria.<\/p>\n
Amid mass displays of hatred for Israel\u2014including the unfurling of a huge banner that read \u201cDestroy Israel\u201d at the 2025 and 2026 Fermin festivals in Pamplona\u2014Spain has seen a 14% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2025 over 2024, the umbrella group of Spanish Jewish communities said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Last week, Sanchez accused Israel and Russia of spreading disinformation on social media about the massive wave of migrants who entered Ceuta from Morocco in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter July 30 and 31, there was an expansion of these hoaxes and this disinformation by social networks associated with both Russia and Israel,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said, prompting the Israeli Foreign ministry to accuse him of \u201clying again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Spain, \u201cwe explain that this offensive is driven primarily from the top down: from Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government, institutions under his control, his political circle, and the parties that support him,\u201d Angel Mas, ACOM\u2019s founder and president, told JNS. \u201cHis campaigns also find conduits in other ideological extremes, including a far right that reproduces and amplifies some of the same antisemitic narratives.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Mas added, \u201cS\u00e1nchez is not Spain. His government is deeply unpopular and does not represent the feelings of Spanish society.\u201d <\/p>\n
A democratic change of government in Spain \u201ccould bring about a rapid and profound shift. We must not lose hope in Spain,\u201d Mas said.<\/p>\n
Spain has had pro-Israel leaders, including Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Aznar of the center-right People\u2019s Party, whose term as prime minister ended in 2004. He has been a staunch supporter of the Jewish state and founded the Friends of Israel Initiative in 2010 to combat efforts to delegitimize Israel.<\/p>\n
The Anti-Defamation League, represented at J50 by its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote in a statement about the conference: \u201cAntisemitism is a global problem that requires global collaboration. No single community or organization can tackle it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The forum, chaired by<\/a> William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has expanded its representation this year, Sa\u2019ar said at the event on Thursday.<\/p>\n\u201cWe discussed our shared and deepening concern over the global rise in antisemitism, and the clear connection between the obsessive anti-Israel rhetoric of many governments and the growing attacks against Jewish communities,\u201d Sa\u2019ar wrote in an X post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Sept. 6, 2026 \/ JNS) A Spanish pro-Israel group on Sunday accused the country\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-81588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}