On anti-Semitism in Spain: I've come across it personally four times in the last couple of weeks.
1) An extreme left-wing gentleman of my acquaintance informed me that Hillary Clinton is the bought-and-paid-for tool of the Jewish-Israeli lobby, which won't tolerate an Obama victory.
2) An elderly gentleman of my acquaintance asked me about the US election; I explained that Hillary and Obama are competing for the Democratic nomination, and that John McCain has already clinched for the Republicans. He thanked me and asked me which candidate the Jewish lobby was supporting.
3) A relative of Remei's informed me that Israeli insurance companies are behind the conspiracy to spray anti-hail chemicals into the Catalan atmosphere.
4) Another relative of Remei's informed me that the Israelis were war criminals who were exterminating Palestinian children. (This occured last week, right after Hamas mortared and rocketed an Israeli city, the Israelis responded with an air-to-surface missile, a Palestinian family was killed, and La Vanguardia ran the photo of the bodies at the funeral on page 3 above the headline "Massacre of children in Gaza.")
4 comments:
The last instance is not anti-semitism, rather a criticism of the Israeli government. Misguided or not, it's perfectly legitimate to criticise the actions of a government you believe violates human rights.
No. Criticism is, "I think it's morally wrong for Israel to fire back, when it is attacked, at Hamas terrorists hiding behind the civilian population." Anti-Semitism is "The Israelis are murderous child-killing war criminals."
The ambient anti-semitism that I've experienced in a similar way can be quite alarming -casual remarks about domineering Jews in the USA dropped in an otherwise delightful dinner conversation I had recently on a visit to Catalunya- at the time, I stammered that Jews do not control the USA, that I have many Jewish friends in there and that they are a good and admirable people.
To no effect.
Then I said that I thought the news in Europe was distorted and not to be trusted.
Silence.
On we went to the next topic.
I resently went on a guided tour of the Call in BCN given by MHCD Centre d’Interpretació del Call
Placeta Manuel Ribé, s/n
with a group of mostly Spanish tourist guides. It came out that I was jewish. Maybe it was just me but I got the impresion that some of them imagined me as coming from 1391 middle ages. Not many Spaniards know any Jewish people. Sort of like Anne Hall's Grandma.
. A lot of people I talk to here believe that stuff about the Jewish Lobby controling things. They don't understand that there is a lobby for every cause in the USA be it Tobacco , enviorment, oil, womans rights, Cristians etc.
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