Twitter has suspended the account of a young anti-Semite extremist in Spain who attained prominence after making hateful and racist statements against Jews. Despite strongly-worded protests about her message from several foreign embassies, the woman has also been interviewed today by two Spanish newspapers, La Razón and El Español.
Isabel Medina Peralta, aged 18, was the headline speaker at a tribute to Spain's World War Two fascist force, the Blue Division, at the Almudena cemetery in Madrid this weekend. The words that public prosecutors have in the end decided to investigate, which she uttered, are: "It is our supreme obligation to fight for Spain and for a Europe which is now weak and liquidated by the enemy, the enemy that has always been the same, although wearing different masks: the Jew. Because there is nothing more precise than this statement: the Jew is to blame."
Twitter decided to intervene, following diplomatic protests made yesterday by Germany, Russia and Israel over the fact that anti-Semitic statements are being made in Spain, and has closed her account for violating the rules of use.
The embassies of Germany, Russia and Israel were strongly critical of the anti-Semitic discourse which the Spanish fascist made at an event in honour of the pro-Nazi Blue Division, unthinkable in any other EU country. Germany stated regretfully that "anti-Semitism is still present in our societies." "It has to be identified because it can still wreak havoc today," said the German ambassador to Spain in a Tweet, adding from a previous message: "Every act of violence against Jews is an attack on the cement of our democracy and our open society".
Israel has added that anti-Semitic proclamations in homage to the Blue Division "are disgusting and cannot have a place in a democratic society." “Education and learning the truth about history is the way to prevent the past from repeating itself,” affirmed the Israeli Ambassador.
Russia also spoke out bluntly against the event in which the young extremist took part, calling it a sign of "neo-Nazism." The Russian Embassy recalled that the Nazis "murdered six million Jews and 27 million Soviet citizens during World War II."
Despite this international ill-feeling, and the disastrous image it presents of Spain, the newspapers La Razón and El Español went ahead and published interviews with Isabel Medina Peralta this Wednesday. “She had been a trending topic on social media thanks to her anti-Semitic speech at a tribute to the Blue Division last Saturday in Madrid,” notes Spain's fourth-largest print daily La Razón, in a banal tone that would shock Hannah Arendt.
TRANSLATION: "Interview | Isabel Medina Peralta, face of Falangism: "I have given my life to fascism" ➡ She has become a trending topic in social media thanks to her anti-Semitic speech in a homage to the Blue Division last Saturday in Madrid."— La Razón
TRANSLATION: "We chat with Isabel Medina Peralta, the young leader of the recently-resurrected National Women's Section of the Falange who, although she directed her anti-Semitic diatribe at only 300 people on Saturday, the message has resounded throughout the country. @MarcosOndarra tells us about it"— EL ESPAÑOL