‘If one tried, one could easily find white children in any European city peddling naive and derogatory opinions of blacks: ditto for Arab children about Jews, Muslim children about Christians, black children about whites.

To generalise on the basis of particular instances can only be justified if one is illustrating a broader picture whose validity is supported by convincing evidence, of the kind offered by opinion polls for example.’

Now, how about this for convincing evidence of widespread prejudice amongst children:

‘He [Israel's ambassador to Spain] cited a study performed last year [2008], in which 46 percent of secondary school students [in Spain] openly stated that they would not like to have a Jewish classmate.’

http://tinyurl.com/msfot5

Anyone see anything about this in the Guardian? No, I didn’t think so.

That’s a truly shocking piece, as anti-Semitic as anything I’ve ever read (at least as regards the quotes I’ve found). Unfortunately, I can’t find a complete translation of the piece. However, I came across this fine article by Yoav Sivan about prejudices and anti-Semitism in the Spanish press. If anything, El Pais (according to Wikipedia, “the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Spain”) seems worse than El Mundo. The article originally appeared in Haaretz:

Bias in black and white

1) ‘That’s the least of it. Consider a cartoon published [in El Pais] during the recent Gaza campaign, depicting a figure saying, “Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, not the Israelis. The Hebrew myths are false, and abuse of the weak is disgusting.” To whom a Jewish man with a hooked nose responds, “We are the people chosen by the God we ourselves invented.” ‘

2) ‘El Pais is regularly filled as well with references comparing Israel to the Nazis. When riots broke out between Jews and Arabs last year in Acre, an article entitled “Acre: An Attempted Pogrom,”
described “segregation that evokes Nazism.” The article, by Juan Miguel Munoz, the paper’s Israel correspondent, was framed as a tale in which Acre’s Jews played the role of the Nazis, while the Arabs became the Jews. An op-ed published in December 2008 read: “Every year we remember the horror of the Jewish Holocaust committed by the Nazis during World War II, but we do nothing about the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people.” ‘

3) And here’s a section about the Antonio Gala piece in El Mundo which is referred to at the link posted by Jonathan Hoffman above:

‘Consider the opinion piece by Antonio Gala, a highly regarded poet and novelist, that appeared in February in El Mundo, Spain’s second-largest newspaper in terms of circulation. With undisguised anti-Semitism, Gala justified the hardships Jews have undergone throughout history. “Just as these things happened on other occasions - pogroms, voluntary or non-voluntary ghettos, exterminations, persecutions, expulsions,” Gala wrote, “shouldn’t they [the Jews] ask themselves why they always happen the same way? Or is it the rest of the world that is mistaken?” ‘

http://tinyurl.com/csexs7

And this, from a piece entitled “Spain’s Jewish problem”, by Michael Freund:

‘Last fall, the Pew Global Attitudes Project published a wide-ranging study [referred to in the piece directly above by Yoav Sivan] on how Jews and Muslims are viewed in various countries. It found that 46 percent of all Spaniards hold negative views of Jews - by far the highest percentage recorded in any non-Muslim country. The runners-up, Russia and Poland, trailed Spain by 10 or more percentage points.

Pew also found that Spain was the only country in Europe where the percentage of those holding negative opinions of Jews exceeded those with a positive view, with just 37% of Spaniards viewing Jews favorably. By contrast, 50% of Poles, 64% of Germans and 73% of Brits have positive views of Jews.’

http://tinyurl.com/l3fzjf

El Mundo has form - as noted above

“Such is no safe abode for the children of my people. Ephraim is an heartless dove - Issachar an over-laboured drudge, which stoops between two burdens. Not in a land of war and blood, surrounded by hostile neighbours, and distracted by internal factions, can Israel hope to rest during her wanderings.”
Ivanhoe -Sir Walter Scott

In answer to that question, follow this link and observe the anti-Semitic cartoons produced very recently by El Mundo and various other newspapers (Page 17 onwards):

http://tinyurl.com/ndkaru

I wanted to link to some others, but there are so many it’s difficult to know which I should pick. Here are just a few:

Here a few from Pat Oliphant:

http://tinyurl.com/mq6gba

Here’s Dave Brown’s notorious blood libel cartoon from the Independent:

http://tinyurl.com/ccrrp

This one is from Petar Pismestrovic in an Austrian newspaper, Kleine Zeitung:

http://tinyurl.com/ks9×4u

A number from Montreal that have absolutely nothing to do with Israel:

http://tinyurl.com/kpu8w8

Another that has nothing to do with Israel, this time from Rutgers:

http://tinyurl.com/ndjl96

Here’s a whole slew of them I just discovered as I was about to post this:

http://tinyurl.com/lzpkep

And here Kate Clark at the BBC excuses Egypt’s anti-semitic cartoons:

1) “there is no indigenous tradition of anti-Jewish racism in the Muslim world.” [!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Joshua]

2) “The use of anti-Semitic imagery in the Egyptian media may seem bizarre, racist and anachronistic to outsiders.

But it is not based on any historical hatred of Jews as a race.

It has more to do with the need to be seen supporting the Palestinians, even if only in a purely symbolic way.

That means that if and when real peace comes, the Egyptian media are likely to quickly forget their anti-Semitic line.”

http://tinyurl.com/lgfjmu

I know…Im clutching here!

Mailman