Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Very interesting piece on Spanish antisemitism and its roots at PJM today: Spain's 'Jewish Problem'. Well worth reading in full, but here's a snip:
...According to a recent study published by the Pew Research Center, nearly half of all Spaniards have negative views of Jews, a statistic that marks Spain as one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe. According to Pew, 46 percent of Spaniards hold negative opinions of Jews, up more than double from the 21 percent of Spaniards with such views in 2005.
Spain is also the only country in Europe where negative views of Jews outweigh positive views; only 37 percent of Spaniards think favorably about Jews. By comparison, 36 percent of Poles have negative views of Jews while 50 percent have positive views; in Germany, 25 percent negative versus 64 percent positive; in France, 20 percent negative versus 79 percent positive; and in Britain, 9 percent positive versus 73 percent favorable. (According to Pew, 77 percent of Americans have favorable views toward Jews, compared with 7 percent unfavorable.)
Pew's latest research about Spanish anti-Semitism corroborates the findings of other, similar surveys. For example, a report about European anti-Semitism published by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League says that 54 percent of Spaniards believe that "Jews have too much power in international markets." And 51 percent of Spaniards believe that "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country."...
And 51 percent of Spaniards believe that "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country." Change country to nation and they would be correct and ... the concept would be rendered benign.
Nearly 800 years of Islamic domination (southern Spain) - anti-Semitism is probably in their blood.
According to the same poll, 52 percent of Spaniards have negative attitudes about Muslims, and there are a fair number of Muslims living in Spain.
It's also not clear how Spaniards feel about Brits, the French, Danes, Italians and the many Central and South Americans who have immigrated to Spain. The poll also doesn't investigate the long-running conflict between Castillian and Catalan. You can probably get more hostility if you use a Madrid-type "Spanish" accent in Barcelona than if you wear an IDF t-shirt.
Racism, ethnic and language conflicts and ethnic cleansing have always been a way of life in Europe.