Antisemitic offenses in Spain rise 86% amid record hate incidents

Author: Published: June 11, 2026

Spain reports 86% rise in antisemitic incidents, as Interior Minister takes aim at ‘xenophobia.’

Shira Li Bartov, JTA

Published: 

 

Spanish Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska, June 9, 2026.

Spanish Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska, June 9, 2026.Jesus Hellin/Europa Press via Getty Images

Antisemitic offenses in Spain rose 86% last year amid the country’s highest total hate incidents on record, according to a report from the Spanish government.

Jews were targeted in 69 hate crimes and incidents in 2025, up from 37 in 2024, according to a report released last week by Spain’s Interior Ministry. Islamophobic attacks also increased from 15 to 35 incidents.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said in a video posted on Facebook that his office documented 2,417 total hate incidents last year, the highest figure since it began recording in 2014. Spain is home to about 70,000 Jews, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.

The ministry defined antisemitism as any act of hatred, violence or discrimination directed against Jews or “nationals of the State of Israel.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has become one of Europe’s sharpest critics of Israel and its military action in Gaza, which he alleges constitutes genocide. Spain imposed a total arms embargo on Israel in 2025 and permanently withdrew its ambassador in March, following Israel’s withdrawal of its ambassador to Spain in 2024.

The Interior Ministry said hate crimes motivated by racism and xenophobia accounted for the largest number of offenses at 934. Grande-Marlaska called out “public officials” for rhetoric and policies that he said inflamed xenophobic sentiment.

Grande-Marlaska released his report as Spain’s far-right, anti-immigration Vox party advocates for a “national priority” policy that favors Spaniards over others in access to public aid and benefits, such as subsidized housing and healthcare. Vox recently struck deals with the conservative People’s Party to insert the “national priority” clause into coalition agreements in the regions of Extremadura, Aragón and Castile and León.

“The national priority is xenophobia,” Grande-Marlaska said. “It is institutionalized xenophobia, protected and promoted by public officials who legitimize and amplify hate speech that, in the past, would have been condemned when it entered the public sphere.”

Vox is strongly supportive of Israel, whose government has allied with the party despite a history of neo-Nazis in its ranks. Vox leader Santiago Abascal visited Israel in 2024 to show his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Sánchez recognized a Palestinian state.

Middle East on edge after Iranian launches

Author: Published: June 10, 2026

Jordan said it intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward the Azraq area. Reports also emerged of sirens in Bahrain and US interceptions at bases in the Middle East, alongside diplomatic talks among Arab states on the crisis with Iran.

 by  Shachar Kleiman
 Published on  06-10-2026 09:40

Last modified: 06-10-2026 10:25

Iran and Gaza expose growing Israel–US gaps ahead of Trump–Netanyahu meeting

Iranian missiles. Photo: Reuters

A senior Jordanian military official said Wednesday that the kingdom’s air defense systems had intercepted and downed five missiles overnight that had been launched from Iran toward the Azraq area in the eastern Zarqa Governorate.

According to the official, the interception caused shrapnel to fall, but there were no injuries or material damage. He said an engineering team was working to collect the remnants and ensure they contained no explosive material. The official also stressed that the Jordanian military was monitoring regional developments and was on the highest level of readiness to defend the kingdom’s skies, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and would not allow any violation of its airspace by any party.

Against the backdrop of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ announcement of an attack on the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said sirens had been activated in the country before dawn. The kingdom urged citizens to remain calm and move to a safer place.

Trump, Mojtaba and the Iranian strike on a terminal in Kuwait
Trump, Mojtaba and the Iranian strike on a terminal in Kuwait. Photo: REUTERS

According to Reuters, the US intercepted all the missiles Iran launched toward bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia held talks Tuesday on developments in the region, including Iran, Lebanon and Gaza. The ministers exchanged views on the Iranian crisis and discussed the course of negotiations between Tehran and Washington on an agreement.

US conducts repeated ‘self-defense strikes’ in Iran following attack of US helicopter over Hormuz

Author: Published: June 10, 2026

According to CENTCOM, the US struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precise munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets.

A US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet climbs after taking off from the former Roosevelt Roads naval base, after the U.S. struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, January 4, 2026.
A US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet climbs after taking off from the former Roosevelt Roads naval base, after the U.S. struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, January 4, 2026.
(photo credit: REUTERS/RICARDO ARDUENGO)
ByDANYA SAPERSTEIN 
Updated: 

The United States launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday evening, following the downing of a US Army Apache helicopter, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Tuesday.

The strikes were described by CENTCOM as “self-defense strikes” and as “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”

 

Several hours after the first round of strikes, explosions were heard in the Iranian cities of Jask and Bandar Abbas, according to Iranian state-sponsored media outlet Mehr news agency, citing local residents’ reports. A short time after that, explosions were reportedly heard in Qeshm Island in southern Iran, in what various media outlets referred to as a third round of strikes.

According to CENTCOM, the US struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precise munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets.

US ‘must respond’ to Iran helicopter attack 

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump announced that the US “must respond” to Iran’s downing of the helicopter.

“Last night, the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump described in a post on Truth Social. “The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Axios Global Affairs Correspondent Barak Ravid cited a US official as saying that forces attacked several Iranian air defense systems and radar systems around the Strait of Hormuz.

A US official told CNN that the US does not believe the strikes will impede negotiations to end the war and were intended as a warning shot, the network reported.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote that Iranian forces would “leave no attack or threat unanswered,” in a post on X.

“Leave our region if you want to be safe,” Araghchi added.

 

Iran denies attacking helicopter

Multiple Iranian officials have disputed that Iran targeted the helicopter. The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister told Qatari state-run Al Jazeera that Iran was not behind the attack. Additionally, Iranian state media cited an “informed military source” as saying that no air offensive military operations have been carried out in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.

The source added that if the enemy attacks under the pretext of downing a military helicopter, it will face a “decisive response,” Iran International cited Iranian media as reporting.

Goldie Katz and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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