Thanks to the political useage that Israel has made of the Shoah, the memory of each murdered Jew is now tainted by association with Israel's genocidal wars against the Palestinian People.

Spaniards are Muslims since 1492

I am ashamed for the government of Catalonia- this is wrong- and it does not reflect the majority of people. The protesters in any demonstartion you might notice, are mostly muslims- and not Catalans- . None of my friends or neighbors support this kind of decision. Barcelona always had a large Jewish community and through it became what it is now, a cosmopolitan, wealthy city- just because some cowards in the government do not dare stand up for what is right does not mean Catalonia is against the Jews and Israel. My apologies!

I am a Catalan, and I support the inalienable right of self-defence of Israel. !עם ישראל חי

Debra shalom . Barcelona has nothing to do with Andalucia . I am jew living in Madrid i have lots of spanish friends and most of them supported Israel . Few of them didn't but it has nothing to do with jews . Why people on here try to make things so simple ? If there some idiots protesting outside and deny holocaust then everyone does it ? Isn't it silly ? Please can you think before you give any comment like this one ?

Your ignorance is only topped by your stupidity.... learn first was is the definition of "Holocaust". I hope your family didn't suffer from the shoa because they will turn in their graves for your attitude

Individuals who do not support the ruling must not be offended, it is not directed at them and their comments are commendable. However, in global politics, it is the law of the land and governmental decisions that direct the political agenda.

you are wrong: Franco was for many people, Spain's Saddam Hussein or Ahmadinejad..... don't get your history all mixed up- and saying ALL Spaniards or Catalonians are Anti-Semitic is plain stupid- there are other words for it- interesting what tidbits from history people come up with all of a sudden.....the Inquisition? just as many Christians died as did Jews- It looks like politicians everywhere as just as stupid and ignorant as the average Joe in the street (including Spain, England, the US, Switzerland etc. etc.

start a writing campaign against the cancellation of the ceremony- opinions on TB don't count in Spain- I did.

Here in BCN w don't forget the Shoah because many catalans died by nazis and also here lives survivors of camps. It's real that here jewish are a minority instead a lot of muslim immigrants live now but people lives normally. The worst is the anti-semitic press and this kind of mentalithy that rest in this country by centuries. Finally many people here are also very very horrified about Catalonia government minister Joan Saura.

The comparison of the just and defensive actions of the IDF in Gaza are an insult to the victims of the Nazi holocaus, an insult to reason, a disgusting and obscene distorsion. There has been no genocide the same as, there was no genocide in the 2002 Jenin battle. Do you remember?: Hundred of deads! Genocide! And when the anti-Zionist hysteria was over, the truth came out: just some 52 Palestinians (UN final numbers, the vast majority of them armed gunmen) were killed (not enough I would add), as were 23 IDF soldiers. The "destruction of the city of Jenin" turned out to be a battle in a very small area of the city. It was a legitimate militar operation as the one we have had in Gaza. The Strip is a relatively small area of 360 km2, were only the IDF air force operated in the skies, if the IDF would have had targeted the civilians, or aimed to produce a massive killing of the unarmed population, the results would have been very different. But fortunately for the Gazan population this methods only existed in the anti-Zionist cheap propaganda. During the eight years of continuous bombardments of civilian targets in the Israeli urban and rural areas of the Negev desert, where were the protests of all those "peace lovers" and "humanists" that now attack the Jewish state with such energy? Where were the protesters when real genocides were committed in Darfur and other places? Where were they to protest the over 1,100 Israelis killed and many thousands more wounded as a result of the murderous violence since September 2000? The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted a doctor at the main Shifa hospital "It's possible that the death toll in Gaza was 500 or 600 at the most, mainly youths aged 17 to 23 who were enlisted by Hamas – who sent them to their deaths".(Cfr. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4317210/Israel-seizes-on-claims-Gaza-death-toll-has-been-exaggerated.html) But the local government in Catalunya canceled an Holocaust remembrance ceremony because -they said- a Holocaust was going on in Gaza. Stupidity, ignorance or vulgar anti-semitism? Probably all of them.

As a Jew living in Barcelona for eight years, I have often been depressed frequently finding ostensibly intelligent, educated Catalans with gaping blind spots when it comes to Israel. How often I had to repeatedly massage a simple idea into their brains: that killing Jews is not very nice. The counterarguments usually consist of parroting such terms as "occupation", "resistance", blah blah blah...without getting into any nuance, constituency analysis, historic perspective, etc. It has gotten to the point that my wife and I are reluctant to broach the subject of Israel to our friends so as not to step into another pile of... There are so many troubling factors about being a Jew in Spain. I recently read a story about a Jewish girl's recent experience being the first and only Jewish child in her school. She is constantly pestered with questions, such as "why do Jews like to drink gentile children's blood?" The same article reports on locals gushing over Jews moving back into the Jewish Quarter (read, ghetto), which made me think of the barracks in Auschwitz getting a fresh set of paint to welcome back its "residents". Synagogues operate pretty much undercover, and any Jewish event is accompanied by presence of hired security (with Mossos de Guardia apparently unable to provide adequate protection) At least half of teenagers in Bcn wear Pali kiffaye (some combine this anti-Jewish symbol with rasta dreadlocks, speaking of missing the point!) And, to top it off, this latest insult to the memory of 6 million European Jews, murdered many years before the State of Israel came into existence on the part of Catalan government. This time around, however, I sense that things might be a bit different. Several of our friends have actually broached the subject and expressed their understanding of Israel' position and actions, if not outright support. The local newspapers regularly run editorials that actually explore the issue beyond the simplistic propaganda rhetoric of the typical news soundbites. And it is wonderful to find supportive talkbacks from you guys!! You made my day! Thank you!

Chanalau Tova is Naturei Karta and is very well known to all of the long-time Ynet talkbackers for his/er rabid "anti-Zionist" rhetoric. As such, s/he is both, ignorant AND stupid beyond any rational thought (as is any suicidal Jew)

Yes, Eurabia is here. I visited Spain last summer and was very surprised to see all major road signs in Spanish AND Arabic!!! In addition, tourist guides kept pushing "how life was so beautiful under the Moors" and how proud they were of that period in history when the Moors treated people of all faiths as one "under the love of one G_d" That is, until I asked if people of all faiths were treated with the same love before or after Jews and Christians had to pay a tax to the Muslim Moors for having a different religion. The tour guide then went silent ... He was Spanish and catholic by the way ... Massive ideological infection going on in Spain. Sorry to our Spanish friends ...

"Palestinians provoke conflict day in and day out." ... after they were forced to leave their own land and were closed in the ghettos, my poor, brainwashed friend.

Me, as Spanish, I think that opinions coming from separatists and former terrorists are less than dust, and them and their vocals must be there: in dustbins. What a great thing the separation fence to set here for basques and catalonians!

you are being a bit disengenious regarding the sp. inquisition. yes, while the majority of its victims were, indeed, catholics, they were actually maranos, the recent converts from judaism, tortured and killed for being suspected of continuing the practice of judaism. So, while majority were technically catholic, they were in reality persecuted for being jewish.

The Inquisition was fundamentally an example of ethnic conflict. The Jews were given the opportunity to assimilate repeatedly up till and past their eventual expulsion. Their mistake was to continue to identify as Jews and therefore to apply one set of rules to interacting with other Jews and another to interacting with the Gentile world. This has been the root of antisemitism worldwide. Antisemitism will stop when Jews start applying a universalist morality--which is to say, when they stop identifying as Jews. AM

People in Spain, as a general rule, know extremely little about the history and nature of Israel, but have an unshakable, fundamentalist belief that it is evil. You can't argue against this belief with facts, because it doesn't rest upon facts, and any semblance of being pro-Israel, or even tolerant of Israel, is not tolerated and is taken as a priori evidence that you yourself must be evil, ignorant, genocidal, and racist. Iñaki helps show that not only is this sort of belief held, but it's held with utter arrogance and disdain for anyone, or any facts, that may get in the way. Unfortunately, state funded television is-- criminally, in my opinion-- actively engaged in the indoctrination into this sort of closed-minded Israel-hatred, through absurdly selective reporting and open attempts to justify Palestinian terror.

As Catalan, I am ashamed because of the acts of my government specially the home minister, Joan Saura. This man participates in a demonstration that in fact supported Hamas. It is incredible. Later he has canceled the Shoah memorial ceremony. Besides they tried to approve a statement against Israel in the Catalan Parliament. They were too much incredible nonsense. I can only apologize. These things have never happened with the former president Jordi Pujol. I thing the main raison is that Joan Saura’s little party gets the most of their few votes from anti Semite people. Hi has to look after his “customers”.

why do you think the firebombing of civilians where a great many innocent germans burned alive is not a holocaust? it is your denial of an actual war atrocity that makes people into anti semites.

In other words, when Jews stop being Jews. You're argument is classic anti-semitism: Jews won't be hated if they abandon their religion and culture. When Judaism ceases to exist and Jews cease to identify as such. The problem is, it's never worked. Jews who converted to Catholicism in Spain and tried to assimilate fell victim to the horrors of the Inquisition. German Jews who worked so hard to assimilate after emancipation in the 19th century found themselves trapped in a lie. No matter how hard they attempted to assimilate, they were hated. Why do you think Zionism exists? No matter how much Jews assimilate, Europe never has been and never will be safe for us. A more contemporary example, Nazi Germany. German Jews in the 1930s were the most assimilated in the world. That didn't stop their loss of rights and mass slaughter. The world hates us if we don't assimilate, and they hate us if we do. The only solution is to keep being exactly who we are, if the world has a problem with it...it's about time we defend ourselves.

I do not totally agree with you- I grew up in Switzerland in a town that has a mixed religious population- there wer of course many Cathlolics, a large number of Protestants- and many Jewish families- we children played together, went to school together, the only time we were not together was during religious instructions- . I never realized until I was much older, that religion would or should make people different. Later I moved to Canada- there was a large Jewish community in the town. Many of my friends are Jews (several survivors)- we accepted and respected each others believes, we celebrated together, worked together- there was no Anti-semitism in that city, the Jews are safe and happy (their words)- so again- just because SOME people are against everything and anybody who is different (it includes racism)- I am sorry you feel everybody is against you. I hope things change for you- and I wish you and your country luck and strength and persistence.... you will need it. All we BAD Christians and Europeans (collective name calling?) can do is work individually to let our voices be heard FOR Israel. it is not easy for us either to be called names, many gerenerations later- 'the sins of the fathers', I know- we will be blamed for everything until we die too......

I don't feel like everyone is against me, I'm sorry if you inferred that. In fact, being Jewish in America is great. I don't think there's anywhere safer in the world for Jews than the United States. My point was that Europe never has been and never will be safe for Jews. It's precisely why Israel exists. Why do you think European Jews flocked en masse to Israel pre and post Holocaust? Why have American Jews stayed put? Why are there almost just as many Jews in the States as in Israel? While European Jews continue to immigrate to Israel?

I am glad you are feeling safe-. The impression I am getting from TB is all the Jews are against European countries- I wonder how much of this hatred is hearsay- and how much or how little is direct experience. My Jewish friends and contacts in Switzerland have no desire to emigrate to Israel- they are Swiss- they support Israel. As far as safety is concerned- there are graffiti on Catholic churches too, racial slurs, etc. on non-Jewish facilities- in every population there is a certain number of extremists of all sorts- America is not excluded- They are prosecuted- what more do you want? Electric chair? Your average European does not feel any safer in the street than Jews- there is crime, willful destruction, stupid teenage gangs... it happens in Israel too I am sure...I notice however, whenever something happens to Jews it becomes world news- if I got beaten up- nobody would put that in the paper- if one of my Jewish friend would get beaten up it would hit the news immediately..there would be TB until the cows come home... it means Jews have a better network- it does not mean they are the ones that are singled out for crime, etc. Just read a newspaper... Shabbat Shalom- ..

I'm against the State of Israel policy, because in my opinion it's a colonial one. Of course this policy benefits the Israeli population, that's why they support it, as all european an north-american populations have support (and continue to support) colonial relations whenever they take profit if them (israelis are not different in that, perhaps they're more brutal because they're also weaker, that's all). I don't see any antisemitism there. Of course catalan and spanish rightists agree with this kind of politics, and in the case of catalan rightist nationalist they agree twice, because they see Zionism as a model for the kind of national construction they want (I'm also a catalan independentist, but consider myself non-nationalist). Finally, all the issue that centers this talkback that we're enjoying must be seen as a matter of domestic catalan politics, in a moment that the right oposition tries to use some clumsiness by the catalan government in order to provoke some diplomatic conflict and erode its image. And then we're all here speaking about toros, inquisition, latin american genocides and the basques (and the inevitable Spanish nationalist #107 talking about building a fence for catalonians and basques). Finally, are you sure that I'm the only in this talkback who bases his views in stereotypes and has been brainswashed by the media? Or you're only concerned by one specific type of brainwashing?

You conveniently left out history before the period you so talently portray as forced exit and ghettoizing of the Pals. If the Arabs had accepted the UN partition as the Israelis did...END OF STORY. Unfortunately ignoramus' such as yourself continue to distort histrory. It is the Arab countries that continue to keep Pals in ghettos and as refugees. Where else in history has a people been a refugee for generation after generation? Furthermore, where is your concern for the Jewish refugees from Arab countries whom Israel settled? Your ignorance is astounding....go read history before you demonstrate that ignorance to all of us.

Next Monday, there will be the institutional commemoration of the Holocaust Day, hosted by the Parliament of Catalonia, with the attendance of the President of the Parliament, a representative of the Israeli embassy, a representative of the Catalan jewish community, a representative of the Catalan survivor of Nazi camps, and other personalities. It has to be noted that the Catalan Parliament was the only "spanish" Parliament that passed a resolution in 1992, blaming the expulsion of the Jews. In 1992, the ruly party in Catalonia was CiU, a catalan nationalist coalition, whose leader was Mr Pujol, a friend of Israel.