‘We will Hang You’: Outrage as Jewish Cemetery in Madrid Defaced on Christmas Eve

Slogans of “good Jew dead Jew” and “we are going to get you” condemned by politicians, major groups.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

A Jewish cemetery in Madrid was vandalized just before Christmas with the attackers spray-painting “a good Jew is a dead Jew’ and “murdering Jews we will hang you” on the doors and walls.

The attack took place at the Jewish cemetery in Hoyo de Manzanares, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north west of Madrid.

The graffiti in Spanish and German included “murderous Jew, we are going to get you,” “good Jew dead Jew,” “raus” – German for “out” with a crossed-out Star of David and “Holocuento” – Spanish for “Holo tale” – a term used by Holocaust deniers.

The Catholic blogger website Contando Estrelas (Counting Stars) called it “a miserable and cowardly attack that has caused outrage among Jews and also among people who are not.”

“Any attack against a cemetery is disgusting, because with it its authors show they do not respect even the dead, who can no longer defend themselves,” Contando Estrelas wrote. “But doing it in the middle of Christmas and with anti-Semitic motivations is even more disgusting, because precisely today we Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus – a Jewish Child – in Bethlehem, a town in the Judean mountains.”

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJCom) strongly condemned the attack. It “calls on the authorities to investigate and arrest the perpetrators of this crime of hatred and anti-Semitism,” the organization tweeted.

“Anti-Semitism and grave desecration always bear the mark of totalitarianism … My solidarity with the Jewish community,” tweeted Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the President of the Community of Madrid – the equivalent of the governor of the region in Spain containing the capital city.

The group Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) tweeted a picture of the attack, saying: “This is how the Hoyo de Manzanares Jewish cemetery in Madrid woke up this morning. You need to be very stupid, have a very empty life and the heart of a vermin to do something like that.”

“Here we are, we are not leaving, we will defend ourselves with the force of the law,” added ACOM, a Spanish, non-denominational and independent organization that strengthens the relationship between Spain and Israel working with government, political parties and civil society.