Unidentified individuals smashed several headstones at the Jewish cemetery of Les Corts in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday, in what Israel’s foreign ministry tied to the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s “anti-Israel campaign.”
“We condemn the vandalism of the Jewish cemetery in Barcelona. This despicable act is a result of the anti-Israel campaign by the Sánchez government. We stand with Spain’s Jewish community. Antisemitism must never be normalized and must be firmly rejected in all societies,” a spokesperson wrote on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s X account.
Local Jews said the incident was a case of antisemitic hatred amid an ongoing of wave of hostility to Jews, but stopped short of blaming the government in a statement by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) and the Jewish Community of Barcelona (CJB) on Sunday. The two groups said they “condemn in the strongest possible terms the despicable antisemitic act of desecration and vandalism of several graves in the Les Corts Jewish Cemetery.”
Mayor Jaume Collboni said in a statement that authorities were working to identify those responsible. “Hate has no place in a pluralistic and respectful Barcelona,” he said.
The two Jewish groups called on authorities to “take the utmost firmness against antisemitism in all its forms, identify the perpetrators of these acts, and ensure they are prosecuted and tried according to the law.”
Recently, antisemites targeted the Jewish school in Barcelona, “endangering hundreds of children. Businesses and workplaces of Jewish citizens in the city have also been targeted,” the two groups said.
This was a reference to the surfacing online earlier this month of an undated map, which included the offices of mainstream Jewish groups in Barcelona among the 150-odd addresses listed, including the local Jewish school. The map’s creators wrote that it showed how Zionism “operates and in what forms it presents itself.”
The website that initially hosted the map, GoGoCarto, removed the addresses following complaints by Spanish and French Jews, the Enfoque Judio (“Jewish Approach”) website reported.
“With these acts, the level of antisemitism has taken an alarming leap, escalating from words to actions, from incitement to direct attack,” FCJE and CJB wrote in their statement about the cemetery vandalism, calling it “a grave offense against the memory of the deceased and an affront to the values of coexistence, respect and religious freedom.”
Among E.U. member states, Spain under Sánchez and his Socialist-led government has led an unusually hostile policy toward Israel, accusing it at the International Court of Justice, along with Ireland, Slovenia and Belgium, of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and imposing an arms embargo on Israel.
Critics of the Sánchez government have accused it of using the Gaza war to distract from corruption scandals, while emboldening antisemitic attacks.
