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The Repression of Our Awareness

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Still Hated in Spain – Blog
By Agata Peleszuk  |  16/09/2010

Recent research in Spain showed a high anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes among Spaniards. According to analysts, unfavorable opinions about minorities are driven by a deeply rooted prejudices, dominant traditionalism and isolationism from the Others. In spite of a certain drop of xenophobia in comparison with the last year, tendency for anti-Other makes Spain the European leader of intolerance                                                                               
 
The research conducted by Casa Sefarad-Israel in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that 34.6 percent of Spaniards maintain bad opinion about Jews. The negative view is mostly related to the attitude towards Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Among opponents of Jewish people 11 percent of responders declared that “Israel should disappear”. In addition, 63.4 percent of Spaniards in the public opinion poll pointed Israel as the most criticized country. Interestingly, Palestine was not evaluated any better – with 50.4 percent critical opinions, against 33.7 percent in favor. In regard to the Middle East conflict, 67.2 percent of responders claimed a shared responsibility of Israelis and Palestinians for failures in the peace process. Speaking of the exclusive blame of Israel, 41.2 percent sympathized with Palestinians. In the scale of negative attributions the most unfavorable opinions were gathered against Muslims. According to the research, Spaniards both dislike and identify Muslims as the main sources of social problems in Spain and in the global arena. In summary, 5.46 out of 10 responders believed that Muslims are the most problematic ethnic group in the country. Therefore, a level of Islamophobia in Spain occurred to be more severe than a scale of anti-Semitism.
 
Both streams of prejudices – anti-Semitism and Islamophobia – originate from different sources. Whereas anti-Semitism characterizes with a historical prejudices against Jews (dating from the Middle Ages) and further anti-Jewish narrative based in the Christian conservatism, the anti-Islamic tendencies are closely related to the modern threat of terrorism and radical Islam. Hence, though the unfavorable opinions of Jews and Muslims have been equally growing in recent years, their motives significantly differ from each other. It can be concluded that reasons for anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe are mostly political. The prejudice against Muslims generates from fear of a growing immigration and a homegrown radicalism that carries a risk of another terrorist attack on the European soil. In regard to anti-Semitism, the political motivation is only one element of the compound prejudice against Jews. According to the conclusions of the International Seminar on Anti-Semitism (Madrid, 2009), anti-Jewishness in Spain is based on three pillars: historical images of Jews identified as an evil stranger and enemy, anti-Americanism as a political testimony from Franco dictatorship and the modern political support for Palestinians.
 
This dissonance is clearly visible in case of Spain where high anti-Semitic feelings were a known denominator, but Islamophobic voices increased after 9/11 and Madrid bombings. A 2008 survey by the Pew Research Centre showed that 52 percent of Spanish expressed their unfavorable attitude towards Muslims. At that time the negative opinion of Jews was rated among 46 percent of respondents. Anti-Semitic sentiments showed to grow systematically in Spain due to the increase of a political criticism against Israel. The Anti-Defamation League's survey held in 2002 revealed that 72 percent of Spaniards believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country.
 

The national crave for unity might be possibly the reason for the growth of anti-Other sentiments among Spanish people. Conservative traditions rooted in the collective memory along with a left-wing solidarity with Palestinian narrative give impetus to anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli opinions. On the other hand, the increase of anti-Muslim prejudices point out that the pro-Palestinian face of Spain might be probably proper to the current government of Zapatero, however cannot be ascribed to the whole society. Recent research shows that stereotypical beliefs of Spaniards encompass both Jews and Muslims. Nonetheless, anti-Semitism due to its centuries-old heritage is evaluated with more criticism. High numbers of prejudiced Spaniards should raise alarm among Europeans about the phenomena of turning towards nationalistic sentiments. The Spanish example shows that a process of shutting away from neighbors might soon become a new trend among states with a significant number of minorities. This regularity, however, does not really respond to Jewish communities. In spite of their small size and lack of a negative influence on social and political systems they are still one of the least-liked minorities.

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