Israel issued a formal reprimand to Spain’s senior diplomatic representative in Tel Aviv over the blowing up of a giant effigy of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a Spanish town over the weekend.

The seven-meter-tall figure was detonated using 14 kilograms of gunpowder in El Burgo, a small town near the city of Málaga in southern Spain. Spectators responded to the explosion with applause and cheers.

“The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of the systematic incitement by the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated in a post on X. “And even now, the Spanish government remains silent. The Spanish chargé d’affaires was summoned for a reprimand.”

The mayor of El Burgo, María Dolores Narváez, defended the event, saying it is part of a tradition dating back to the 1940s. According to her, “the event is meant to symbolize condemnation of evil in society. It carries a message of ‘no to war’ and ‘no to genocide.’ Each year, a different figure is chosen to represent what we perceive as evil. In the past, this has included issues such as violence against women, corruption, terrorism, and even international leaders.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)