MADRID: Israel said on Saturday it had reprimanded Spain’s most senior diplomat in Tel Aviv over the blowing up of a giant effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Spanish town this week.
The seven-metre (23-foot) figure was packed with 14 kilograms (31 lb) of gunpowder in El Burgo, a small town near the southern city of Malaga, in a decades-old ceremony on April 5, its Mayor Maria Dolores Narvaez told local television.
“The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government’s systemic incitement,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X which highlighted a video clip.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the video.
“The Spanish government is committed to fighting against antisemitism and any form of hate or discrimination. As such we totally reject any insidious allegation which suggests the contrary,” a Spanish Foreign Ministry source said in response.
El Burgo’s Mayor Narvaez said the town has previously used effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the annual event.
Spain has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. and Israeli military campaigns in Iran and Lebanon, despite U.S. threats to punish uncooperative NATO allies.
