The Spanish government has unveiled a national plan to combat antisemitism and strengthen the Jewish community.
The plan, which has been approved in the Council of Ministers, will implement the European Strategy to Combat Antisemitism for 2023-2030, including a special protocol for reporting antisemitic hate crimes.
The minister of the presidency and democratic memory, Félix Bolaños, described the plan as serving to “guarantee and strengthen the fight against antisemitism,” according to Spanish news site RTVE.
The plan, which corresponds with the EU antisemitism strategy drafted in October 2021, spotlights the current danger of the “persistence of hate speech and antisemitic attitudes” along with “serious incidents affecting places of worship or people from the Jewish community.”
The plan was written with the help of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.
It aims to combat all forms of antisemitism and incitement to hatred against the Jewish community, focusing on online antisemitism; increasing Holocaust education; and encouraging the “conditions for Jews to be able to live their lives in Spain in accordance with their beliefs and traditions.”
According to Bolaños, the plan will include the ability to “improve, reinforce and guarantee some other measures to fight antisemitism.” But he noted that much of the plan is already part of Spanish law.
“This plan provides a forceful response to what we are trying to stop, it provides resources and measures to fight antisemitism and will favour the future of the Jewish community in Spain, so that it can develop its life within its beliefs and traditions,” he added.