A Spanish pro-Israel group on Sunday accused the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of driving antisemitic narratives “top-down” into the fabric of society, and predicted a “fast shift” in policies if the government changes.
“It would be a grave mistake to identify Spain and the Spanish people with his positions, to demonize the country, or to consider it a lost cause,” the head of the Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM—Acción y Comunicación sobre Oriente Medio) group said at the J50 Forum in Jerusalem. The forum, an initiative of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, brought together in Jerusalem last week dozens of groups working to counter anti-Israel policy and content.
Of the E.U.'s large economies, Spain under Sánchez has adopted the most hostile position toward Israel. Sánchez called it “a genocidal state” 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.
Amid mass displays of hatred for Israel—including the unfurling of a huge banner that read “Destroy Israel” at the 2025 and 2026 Fermin festivals in Pamplona—Spain has seen a 14% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2025 over 2024, the umbrella group of Spanish Jewish communities said on Wednesday.
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.
“After July 30 and 31, there was an expansion of these hoaxes and this disinformation by social networks associated with both Russia and Israel,” Sánchez said, prompting the Israeli Foreign ministry to accuse him of “lying again.”
In Spain, “we explain that this offensive is driven primarily from the top down: from Pedro Sánchez’s government, institutions under his control, his political circle, and the parties that support him,” Angel Mas, ACOM’s founder and president, told JNS. “His campaigns also find conduits in other ideological extremes, including a far right that reproduces and amplifies some of the same antisemitic narratives.”
However, Mas added, “Sánchez is not Spain. His government is deeply unpopular and does not represent the feelings of Spanish society.”
A democratic change of government in Spain “could bring about a rapid and profound shift. We must not lose hope in Spain,” Mas said.
Spain has had pro-Israel leaders, including José María Aznar of the center-right People’s 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.
The Anti-Defamation League, represented at J50 by its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote in a statement about the conference: “Antisemitism is a global problem that requires global collaboration. No single community or organization can tackle it alone.”
The forum, chaired by William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has expanded its representation this year, Sa’ar said at the event on Thursday.
“We 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,” Sa’ar wrote in an X post.
