The Casa Sefarad-Israel is a state-sponsored body in Spain which aims to increase awareness in that country of its Sephardic heritage and Jewish culture in general and to improve ties between Spain and Israel. It has just released the results of a survey it commissioned on attitudes towards Jews in Spain.

48% of those surveyed had a positive view of Jews while 34.6% had a negative one. The most common reasons given for antisemitic feelings was that Jews “create problems in the world” and “what they [Jews] do in the Middle East”.  Their supposed status as immigrants (!) in Spain was also a source of negative feeling.

83.55%  indicated their agreement with the idea that “the Jews have the right to live in peace and security within Israel’s internationally recognized frontiers”, with 11.1% being of the view that Israel should disappear because “it was created artificially on Arab land”.

Diego De Ojeda, the Director of the Casa Sefarad-Israel described the percentage of Spanish people with antisemitic feelings as “grave” but in line with the level present in other European countries.