Javier Bardem reshares posts claiming Israel, far right benefit from Spain-Morocco border crisis

Spanish actor Javier Bardem reshared social media posts alleging that Israel and far-right groups in the West benefit from tensions involving Spain and Morocco over the enclave of Ceuta.

One post said it was unknown who “engineered” the crisis at the border between Morocco and the North African enclave but claimed Israel and the Western far right benefit from “a weakened, destabilised Spain.”

The post rejected characterizations of the situation as an “invasion” of Europe and described Spain as “Europe’s loudest voice against Israeli and US war crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran.”

It also claimed that Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had publicly called on Arabs and Muslims to “liberate” Ceuta and Melilla and threatened to fund organizations advocating such efforts in retaliation for Spain’s support for Palestine.

“We don’t know who engineered this crisis, but we know who benefits from a weakened, destabilised Spain: Israel, and the Western far right eager to turn migration into a weapon against Muslims,” the post said.

In another post reshared by Bardem, a social media user claimed the situation in Ceuta was closely connected to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s visit last month to Algeria, his first in four years.

“It would not be the first time Morocco has used migrants to politically extort Spain,” the post said.

It claimed Morocco had previously done so in 2021, when Spain received Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front-a group calling for a referendum on self-determination in Morocco’s Western Sahara region-and Morocco opened the border with Ceuta, allowing thousands of people to cross.

The post said that the latest situation should be viewed in the context of an “alliance between (US President Donald) Trump, Netanyahu and Morocco.”

“Morocco is a strategic ally of the Zionist project in the region and uses the border as a tool of political pressure,” it claimed.

Among Western countries, Spain is one of the strongest advocates for Palestine and critics of Israel’s ongoing genocide, with Madrid recognizing the state of Palestine in May 2024.