srael’s top diplomat in Spain and the founder of a prominent Spanish pro-Israel organization warned on Monday that local mainstream media were spreading conspiracy theories about the Jewish state.
Dana Erlich, Israel’s acting ambassador in Spain, told JNS that public broadcaster RTVE was “promoting libels and lies against Israel in the middle of a tragedy, without any information or data,” referring to a deadly train crash near Toledo on Oct. 28.
Angel Mas, founder of the Action and Communication (ACOM) nonprofit, said conspiracy theories about that and other issues, including the influx of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into Ceuta from Morocco in July, were antisemitic and fueled by political extremists on both the left and the right.
The focus on RTVE followed an Oct. 29 broadcast in which commentator José Miguel Villarroya appeared to suggest that Israel might have been involved in the deadly train collision in Urda, near Toledo, the previous day, in which at least 69 people were killed.
Presenter Jesús Cintora said this sounded like a conspiracy theory, to which Villarroya said, incorrectly: “There have been threats from Israel.” Cintora responded: “I think it’s serious that you point to Israel and then don’t provide specifics.”
Villarroya said he was not claiming Israel had caused the crash. RTVE subsequently published a fact-check rejecting allegations of Israeli involvement.
“Where is the journalistic integrity and professional responsibility of RTVE?” Erlich demanded, adding: “It is unacceptable. Spain’s public television Journalism must combat hoaxes, not amplify them.”
Mas said in a video message released this week: “It is particularly disturbing that conspiracies originating in pro-Hamas, pro-Iranian sectors of the far left find an echo in the fringe far right. Hatred of Jews is their meeting point.”
Conspiracy theories are being trafficked by “directors, editors, publishers, shareholders and advertisers. They must all ask themselves what they are allowing, what they are encouraging and what they are financing,” Mas said, vowing to take legal action against offenders.
“If the authorities fail to fulfill their obligation, we will use every legitimate means at our disposal to protect ourselves and our families,” he added.
Mas has consistently rejected the idea that Spanish society is inherently antisemitic, arguing that the current government is encouraging antisemitic elements on the fringes of society and predicting a reversal under a government with different politics.
Sánchez publicly linked Israel to the Ceuta crisis on Aug. 31 in an interview with Cadena SER. He alleged that Israeli-linked social media networks had spread misinformation about Spanish immigration rules, helping fuel the mass crossing from Morocco into Ceuta on July 30-31.
Sánchez suggested that Israel’s motive was retaliation for Spain’s criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza, saying that if Russia “or Israel” were “spreading disinformation on this issue,” it is “not because they are concerned about migration in Spain or Europe, but because of the political positions we are taking.”
In September, Spain’s main Jewish organization documented a 14% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2025 over the previous year.
In a report, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) and the Movement Against Intolerance recorded 221 antisemitic incidents in 2025, compared with 193 in 2024. The report “confirms the persistence of an especially worrying trend: antisemitism continues to grow in Spain,” the FCJE said.
Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism last year accused Spain of enabling antisemitism through “selective criticism of Israel and abuse of the language of human rights.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called Israel a “genocidal state” last year, shortly before his government banned products made or marketed by Israelis from Judea and Samaria.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last year accused Spain’s government of spreading antisemitism after Sánchez announced fresh measures aimed at stopping what he called “the genocide in Gaza.”
“The attempt by Sanchez’s corrupt administration to divert attention from serious corruption scandals through a continuous anti-Israel and antisemitic campaign is transparent,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
