Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is using Israel as a scapegoat to distract from his own political troubles, businessman and Hispanic Jewish Foundation (HJF) president David Hatchwell Altaras said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, alleging manipulative behavior by the Sanchez government that saw political opponents targeted with lawfare and a smear campaign that culminated in hit pieces on him as the central figure in a supposed pro-Israel conspiracy.
The Madrid businessman said that, starting with a July 28 TRT Spanish video casting Hatchwell as “the biggest Zionist in Spain,” there had been a torrent of articles and videos that gave details about his life that are partially true but they were presented in a narrative that cast him as part of a conspiratorial network seeking to influence Spanish politics.
He described the articles as painting him as an “influential person and an extremely active businessman” who was “doing things in a very secretive sort of way” in order “to exert the influence of the long arm of Israel.”
A September 21 El Diario article asserted that Hatchwell’s influence was the reason that Community of Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso wasn’t critical of Israel and instead held Hamas responsible for the destruction in Gaza.
El Diario claimed that Díaz Ayuso’s friendly relations toward Israel and the Madrid Jewish community was born of policy decisions favorable to “a specific group of Jewish businessmen and powerful people in Madrid” who were the patrons of HJF. One such decision was the leasing of a historical building with a three-year payment grace period to build the Hispanic-Jewish Museum.
“These conspiracies against me literally started over the summer, and they’ve been culminating into something much stronger in the last weeks, to a point that Spanish national TV and Spanish national radio last week, during the span of two hours, came up with programs in the largest audience moment, in the larger share of time, by doing a special program about me and about the fact that I was too much of an influential businessman,” said Hatchwell. “I’m sure that there’s 30, 50 guys as influential as I am – but the difference is that I’m a Jew.”
A negative force against Spain?
Hatchwell warned that the attempts to smear him as a negative force against Spain and the Spanish people would be met with legal action, a process that had already been initiated.
He explained that the response was necessary, as the targeting of individuals in such a manner could lead to someone taking action against him. During the decades of Basque separatist terrorism, Hatchwell explained, some would turn people into targets through stochastic terrorism, and others would pull the trigger. It was dangerous to illuminate him as an insidious figure.
The businessman said that he never asked political leaders for anything related to his businesses. While the deal with the building for the Madrid Jewish Museum was presented as a favor, Hatchwell said that the HJF was investing €15 million into restoring the site, and in 30 years would give it to the city. After the grace construction period, the organization would pay rent for three decades.
“Where’s the gift? We’re providing to the region of Madrid a little jewel that is going to be a touristic opportunity and something that brings value to the city and to the region. So they’re painting it as if we were getting an amazing building for free, where there’s nothing for free, we’re paying rent, and we’re doing a CapEx [capital expenditure] and investment, and the ownership is theirs,” said Hatchwell. “We’re creating value, but it sounds great to the conspiracy theorists that the Jews are trying to get the building for free from the region in order to push their message.”
As the former president of the Jewish community of Madrid, Hatchwell explained that he learned that if one’s voice isn’t heard, it is as if one doesn’t exist, and so the small Jewish community was absent from Spanish society. It was only by speaking about Jewish contributions to Spain and the alignment of values between Israel and his country that these ideas could be disseminated, and he did this in media campaigns, not in the shadows.
Community and philanthropic cooperation with political leaders was based on shared values and friendship, said Hatchwell, and there is nothing sinister about having a wealth of friends who are willing to stand by their principles for matters such as good relations with Israel.
“I always tell my kids that you cannot be friends with people who are not courageous, because the person who’s not courageous will never be your friend, because they’ll cave into other pressures. So I’m very lucky that I have a lot of friends. I do a lot for my friends, and they do a lot for me,” said Hatchwell.
Hatchwell’s engagement with political and community leaders, he explained, was about engendering understanding of the Jewish elements of Spanish identity and fostering better Spanish-Israeli ties. The message of the HJF is to “make sure that people understand the positive force that Judaism has had in the Iberian Peninsula, its impact in different parts of the world, including the Spanish-speaking world, and the many things that we have in common. So it’s based on values of mutual respect, of tolerance, or building a better world together.”
In regards to Israel, Hatchwell, the co-founder of Action and Communication on the Middle East, explained that as a Spanish citizen he wants to strengthen the relationship between Israel and Spain because he feels there are mutually beneficial national interests and shared values. He believes in the spirit of Spain set forth in the 1978 constitution, which defended its people and gave protection to minorities. In this, he saw echoes of the same principles resonating in Israel.
“It’s as simple as understanding that Israel is an oasis of freedom in this part of the world, in front of dictatorships, of lack of freedom, where women obviously are second-class citizens all over this area, where you cannot choose your sexual orientation, where economic freedoms do not exist,” said Hatchwell. “We’ve [the Jews] been really a people based on freedom for 4,000 years.”
The world is in a battle of freedom against oppression, according to Hatchwell, and each individual is tasked with the challenge to shine a light against the darkness.
“It’s not easy. I know that my life could be easier if I were just a pure, simple businessman who was looking out for my economic interest,” said Hatchwell. “I would definitely make more money. I would have all my focus on that. But I don’t think that it’s a way to lead your life.”
Hatchwell said that because the Spanish Jewish community is so small, any individual can have a large impact, and so he feels he has an even greater responsibility to stand up for what he believes is right. The criticism of him is equal to the positive impact he is having.
Yet it is also part of a trend, he argued, of how the current government targets any opposition and criticism with legal and bureaucratic encumbrances. Hatchwell has good relations with political parties on the Center-Right and right side of the political spectrum, which has better positions on the State of Israel, and the Sanchez government allegedly seeks to deter political opposition.
Sanchez, secretary-general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), “will stop at nothing in order to implement his ideas,” said Hatchwell. “His political career is an example of doubling down constantly in front of challenges, and truth is a nonissue for him. The guy has zero problem to lie, to cheat. He is easily corrupted.”
Hatchwell accused the prime minister of controlling the media through financial incentives such as sponsorships and advertising, but on the other hand had treated those not siding with him as enemies and doing “everything possible to destroy you.”
“They do campaigns literally against people, and they use lawfare in order to keep their adversaries busy,” said Hatchwell, using the example of his business partner, musical composer and record producer Ignacio “Nacho” Cano Andres.
Cano was not only named for his connection to HJF in the recent articles about Hatchwell’s influence, the music star was also arrested last July for hiring illegal immigrants for a musical show. According to El Pais the case was closed following appeals and a report by the Madrid Labor Inspectorate. El Mundo reported that Cano filed a complaint against the judge in September for what his lawyers argued was a politically motivated case to mischaracterize the legal employment of Mexican interns.
Hatchwell said that the charges against Cano were “ridiculous,” but Cano was still arrested and dragged before a judge. Hatchwell had to testify because of their joint company. This was done to Cano, according to Hatchwell, because Cano “happens to be an open supporter of the opposition.”
Sanchez’s encouragement of the La Vuelta cycling race’s disruptions in mid-September were also politically motivated, according to Hatchwell. The far Left of Spain excelled at rallying its supporters to the streets, and Hatchwell alleged that Euskal Herria Bildu, the Basque separatist party that had been linked to the ETA separatist group, instigated the incidents in the parts of the race through Basque areas. Allies of Sanchez’s government allegedly organized an “intifada in Spanish style” in the early part of the race.
“It’s incidents in the streets where people not only go with flags, but they end up throwing nails, pieces of glass. I mean, they really do things that are very, very dangerous. Imagine a cyclist coming at 70 kilometers per hour and receiving something like that,” Hatchwell said.
Anti-Israel protests had invaded the cycling route and harassed Israeli racers mid-race, leading the Israel – Premier Tech team to remove its name from the uniforms of its riders. The demonstrations also led other riders to threaten to quit the race, according to Reuters.
At a September 14 Socialist Party rally, Sanchez expressed “admiration for the Spanish people who are mobilizing for just causes like Palestine” during the race. Hours after Sanchez praised pro-Palestinian protesters, protesters overturned barriers and occupied the route of the last section of the race. They clashed with police attempting to turn them back. Demonstrators blocked that last part of the La Vuelta, leading to the cancellation of the final leg in Madrid.
Hatchwell accused Sanchez of inciting violence and mobilizing activists to disrupt the race in Madrid because the region was controlled by center-right politicians such as Díaz Ayuso.
“It’s an area that has a lot of prosperity, that is very pro-Israel. So the government was delighted that this would happen in Madrid, so that the image of Madrid at the world level would suffer from that, which is crazy,” said Hatchwell.
Sanchez was allegedly willing to harm his own country and tourist economy not only to cause relatively greater problems for the regional authorities that opposed him, but, according to Hatchwell, his support for La Vuelta anti-Israel disruptions was also part of a strategy of using Israel as a scapegoat to distract from corruption allegations and political troubles.
The Socialist leader’s wife, brother, former transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, and his aide Koldo Garcia are all facing graft investigations, according to The Guardian. In June, senior PSOE MP Santos Cerdan resigned after a court found strong evidence that he was involved with Abalos and Garcia in taking kickbacks from public construction contracts. Hatchwell said that the corruption allegations are indicative of how the PSOE operates.
While there were calls for early elections, Hatchwell said that Sanchez would never acquiesce to such a move, because he knows there is a high degree of fatigue among the Spanish public regarding left-wing politics. Sanchez’s coalition is made up of left-wing parties such as Podemos, Sumar, and Catalan and Basque independence factions, and Hatchwell said that they were spending the last two years of the government’s lifespan to extract whatever conditions and benefits that they could. He predicted that the country would veer to the Center and Right in the next election.
WITH CORRUPTION allegations before the public, Sanchez decided “to take a little rabbit out of his hat, and to wave it to the world, saying, “Gentlemen, what are we talking about? The biggest problem of humanity is called Gaza, and there’s a genocide that is being committed against the poor Gazan population, and we have to do something about it.” Now, he hasn’t done anything about other situations, about Sudan, about Nigeria, where Christians are being literally massacred, or in other conflicts around the world. He’s only focusing here.”
Hatchwell explained that the subject of Israel was a source of traditional animus in the Left, and the Middle East more broadly. Protests about conflicts in the Middle East had already proven successful with demonstrations against the former center-right prime minister José María Aznar’s government over participation in the Iraq War. It was easy to rally the base for another Middle East conflict. Spain had taken one of the most hostile approaches against Israel during the Israel-Hamas War, recognizing a Palestinian state since May, before other European powers. Hatchwell said that there was a systemic and radical approach toward Israel being taken by the government.
“When you see, day in and day, out on TV, and you listen on the radio, and you read in the media and even in social media, that Israel is genocidal in terms of its approach against the Palestinian people, things tend to stick,” said Hatchwell.
As support for disruptions of the La Vuelta affected Spanish standing and the tourist economy, and the alleged targeting of opposition figures created danger from third-party radicals, the misdirections about Israel had a side effect on wider Spanish society. Incidents at “another level that we didn’t have before,” such as the vandalization of buildings, synagogues, and verbal harassment, were occurring, according to Hatchwell.
“Spain, thank God, is a country where people can still walk in the streets with a kippah. It’s easier than in Paris or in London.
“But things are changing, and they’re changing fast because there’s a prime minister who has decided to use an excuse to create a problem,” said Hatchwell. “The problem, unfortunately, is once you start putting antisemitism and toxicity into a society, it sticks; and [Sanchez] doesn’t care, because he has an agenda which is personal. So it’s his agenda versus the rest of the world.”