Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Spanish Police Arrest Hamas Supporter For Inciting Violence Against Jews

(JTA) — Police in Spain arrested a young Arab woman whom they said called for violence against Jews online and was flagged gathering intelligence about Israel’s embassy in Madrid.

The 23-year-old woman, who is a Moroccan citizen of Syrian and Palestinian descent, was arrested this week in Zaragoza, 170 miles northeast of the capital, for hate speech and incitement to violence, police sources told the ABC newspaper. The paper’s article did not identify the suspect by name.

Police reportedly flagged the woman last year after noticing her several times near the embassy in Madrid, including in the presence of unidentified men. Police reportedly followed the woman and discovered her identity, leading counterterrorist researchers to monitor her activities online.

On Facebook, where the woman moderated one anti-Israel group with more than 2,000 subscribers, the researchers documented the suspect praising Hamas and speaking favorably about the murder of Jews, leading to her arrest.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.