Spanish PM says disinformation on Ceuta crisis was spread by Russia, Israel

Russia and Israel both spread and amplified disinformation related to the mass entry of migrants into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta last month, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.

Russia and Israel both spread and amplified disinformation related to the mass entry of migrants into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta last month, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, citing research by the European Union's foreign service, EEAS.

Sanchez said it was "evident" that the two countries had used the crisis to criticize the Spanish government, as they were at odds with Madrid over its position on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

This comes a month after over 72,000 migrants surged into Ceuta, sparking tensions within the European Union and fueling anti-immigration rhetoric among far-right parties worldwide. At least 96 people died in the attempt to reach European soil.

CAM antisemitism report – Antisemitic conspiracies flood social media in wake of Ceuta invasion

CAM's Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) monitored 173 high-impact posts published by 119 influencer accounts in the three days after more than 50,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on July 30.

Together, the posts generated 57.5 million views, 1.9 million likes, and 368,400 shares, with an estimated reach of 103.1 million.

The dominant explanatory frame on X was not Spanish law, Moroccan policy, or European immigration issues. Rather, it was conspiratorial antisemitic tropes casting the State of Israel and the Jewish people as the architects of a supposed plot to destabilize Europe.

"A humanitarian emergency at Europe's border was turned into a global antisemitic campaign in under 72 hours, and X did nothing to slow it down," said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman. "This is not a story about a few bad actors. It is a story about a platform whose design rewards the fastest and most inflammatory explanation available, and on X that explanation is increasingly a Jewish conspiracy."