The betrayal took place on October 7th, 2025 (a tragic date for Israelis), and ‘Junts’ stood side by side with the communists, socialists, and radical leftist separatists. The vote was only postponed to the 8th because ‘Podemos’, Spain’s most extreme far-left party, initially refused to back the measure—claiming they were not going to support it because it was “not harsh enough on Israel” (after public pressure from other leftist parties hit, they endorsed the anti-Israel measure). The symbolism could not have been darker: on the anniversary of Hamas’s massacre, Catalonia’s once-Zionist right joined hands with the same ideological current that excuses such barbarism.
For decades, right-wing Catalan nationalists saw in Zionism a reflection of their own struggle for nationhood. Now their heirs stand with those who chant “from the river to the sea.”
In the 1980s, the right-wing founding father of modern Catalan nationalism, President Jordi Pujol, looked to Israel as an example for Catalonia’s rebirth. His 1987 visit to Jerusalem symbolized that bond—two small nations defying history, defending language and identity against overwhelming odds. Even former Catalan President Artur Mas once called Israel a “strategic partner.”
But the Gaza War radically changed the political climate. Under relentless street pressure, drowned in anti-Israel propaganda and campus-style moral theater, Junts caved. It voted with Madrid to criminalize arms sales to the very democracy it once revered. Pilar Rahola, Catalonia’s fearless journalist and lifelong defender of Israel, saw this coming. She called the pro-independence Catalan anti-Zionism “the new, elegant antisemitism.” She was right. The same activists who cry “freedom for Palestine” trample Catalonia’s own claim to self-determination. Hypocrisy has rarely been so loud—or so shameless.
Some Junts officials now claim Israel “betrayed” Catalonia by refusing to recognize the 2017 referendum. That is fiction. Israel’s stance was pragmatic neutrality: avoiding alienating Spain without condemning Catalonia. Only one Israeli MP, Sharren Haskel, ever urged recognition—and she spoke for herself, not the Israeli government. Expecting Israel, a nation constantly defending its own legitimacy, to recognize a separatist region of a European state was naïve at best and reckless at worst.
Meanwhile, a new force is seizing the moral ground Junts abandoned. Sílvia Orriols, the iron-willed mayor of Ripoll—the very town where the terrorists who carried out the 2017 Barcelona Rambla massacre were radicalized—has built her career on confronting the Islamist networks that others preferred to ignore.
As Ripoll’s mayor, she expelled extremist imams, demanded the closure of radical mosques, and restored law and civic pride to a town once paralyzed by fear. Her party, Aliança Catalana (AC), entered the Catalan Parliament waving both the ‘senyera’ and the Israeli flag. Fiercely nationalist, unapologetically anti-Islamist, and openly pro-Israel, Orriols declares that Catalonia does not need another referendum—it already voted in 2017 and should declare independence unilaterally.
Orriols embodies the moral clarity Junts lost. She understands that the enemies of Israel and the enemies of Catalonia are cut from the same cloth: they despise freedom, sovereignty, and identity. Her record in Ripoll proves she is trustworthy for Israel—a leader who acts, not postures; who defends her people without apologizing to her critics. As she puts it, “Israel acts. Spain stalls.”
If Orriols comes to power, Israel’s reaction will be guided by realism, not rhetoric. Jerusalem will likely remain officially neutral at first, unwilling to alienate Madrid. But quiet cooperation would emerge swiftly—in cybersecurity, water technology, and defense innovation, areas where Catalonia could become a strategic partner rather than a diplomatic liability.
A pro-Israel, security-oriented Catalan government would find sympathy among Israel’s conservative leaders, who understand the value of small nations standing firm in hostile environments.
Junts traded Pujol’s Zionism for applause from the mob. It chose moral surrender over strategic solidarity—and now it is bleeding both electorally and politically. Aliança Catalana now carries the pro-Israel mantle—and, with it, the integrity of Catalonia’s independence cause.
In the end, history remembers who stood with truth when it was unpopular. And today, that truth still speaks Hebrew.
