Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Spanish Lawmaker Decries ‘Jewish Market’ Budget

A pro-Israel Spanish politician apologized for using the term “Jewish market” in describing budget negotiations.

Jose Antonio Monago, the president of the local government of the Spanish autonomous region of Extremadura, said his statement was inappropriate but had been taken out of context.

Monago, in an apology appearing Thursday in the Europa Press news agency, had said in an earlier statement that “discussions about the budget must not turn into a Jewish market.”

“I did not mean to cause any offense with this expression,” he said, adding that he is “publicly apologizing to the Jewish community.“

In a statement Thursday, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, or FCJE, accepted Monago’s apology. “FCJE values the apology of the president of the Extremadura and thanks him for making them in connection with the unfortunate phrase,” the umbrella group wrote.

Monago visited Israel last year, calling it “a role model for the entire world and especially for Europe.”

At the end of his trip, he wrote an op-ed for the local el Periodico Extremadura in which he praised Israel for being a world leader in science and medicine and called its president, Shimon Peres, “one of the world’s most brilliant leaders.”

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.