The Diplomat
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) celebrated yesterday the resignation of Amparo Rubiales as president of the PSOE of Seville “after the serious anti-Semitic insult she dedicated to the general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo whom she called ‘Nazi Jew'”.
In a press release, the Federation – the institution that officially represents the Spanish Jews – appreciated the gesture of the PSOE of Seville “to accept the resignation of Amparo Rubiales” because “such a serious fact that goes against the code of ethics of the PSOE itself entails an inexcusable rectification”. “Fortunately we have in Spain a National Plan against Antisemitism that helps to combat these intolerable behaviors,” it continued. “This renunciation means that there should be no place in the institutions for anti-Semitism or expressions that can induce hatred,” the FCJE concluded.
In early June, Bendodo stated before the executive committee of the Marbella PP that “Bismarck said that Spain is the strongest country in the world, because we have been attacking ourselves for centuries and never managed to destroy ourselves, but Bismarck did not know Pedro Sanchez.” In her response, the veteran socialist politician (former councilor of the Junta de Andalucía and former senator and deputy in Congress) wrote on her Twitter account that the words of the number three of the PP constituted “really the speech of a Nazi Jew”.
As a consequence, the PSOE leadership demanded a rectification from Rubiales and finally accepted her resignation, while thanking her for “her availability and work at this stage”. Amparo Rubiales presented her resignation “to settle” the controversy, according to her own statement. She also wrote another tweet in which she admitted that “the religion, origin or ethnicity of someone should never be used for political criticism, even if, as in my case, the intention was to point out a serious inconsistency”. For this reason, she presented her “apologies” and added, withdrawing the word “Jew” but far from retracting: “I correct: Bendodo is a Nazi”. Elías Bendodo comes from a Sephardic Jewish family originally from Morocco.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, declared yesterday via Twitter that “attitudes like this have no place in politics” and was convinced that “the majority of socialist militants do not share them. “It is unheard of that this person is still in the PSOE,” he added.
