A nazi hunter's center rejects Oscar Puente's insult to Jewish children

Spain's Transport Minister, Socialist Óscar Puente, is prone to generating controversy with his insults on social media.

A Pedro Sánchez minister insults Jewish minors as he never does with criminals
Pedro Sánchez tried to cover up the socialist scandals with antisemitism and it went wrong

The minister took sides and called French Jewish children “Israeli brats”

This time the controversy has already crossed Spanish borders. As we saw here yesterday, on July 25, Óscar Puente intervened in the controversy over the expulsion of dozens of French Jewish minors from a Vueling plane. Several complaints have already been filed against the Spanish airline for a possible case of antisemitism, something Vueling denies. Without waiting for the outcome of the investigation, Puente published a message on Twitter taking sides and insulting Jewish children, calling them "Israeli brats", despite being of French nationality.

The minister's message could be read at this link. He deleted it in the last few hours, but an automatic copy can be seen here. As you could read yesterday in Counting Stars, the minister's message had been criticized by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), without Óscar Puente even bothering to reply.

A French MP criticizes the Spanish minister: “This message should make you ashamed”

International criticism seems to have had more of an effect on the Socialist minister. This Saturday, French center-left MP Stéphane Vojetta criticized the Spanish minister's words: "This message should make you ashamed. Investigate what happened in Valencia at once and while we wait for the conclusions, apologize for your message." In his message, Vojetta mentioned France's transport minister, the centrist Philippe Tabarot, telling him in French: "Your counterpart deserves a phone call."

This afternoon, Vojetta criticized the minister for deleting his message without apologizing: "Deleting the message is a good start, but apologizing for its content would be even better.". The MP added: "As for the official investigation, many of us are waiting for it, in France and beyond." Vojetta included a screenshot of the minister's message.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center joins the criticism of the minister for his message

Yesterday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center shared MP Vojetta's message, thanking him "for standing up for the Jewish children removed from the @vueling flight and for calling out Spain’s Transport Minister (@oscar_puente_) for labeling them “Israeli brats.” We join your call for answers and demand a full investigation into this disturbing incident."

In case anyone doesn't know, this center was founded by the famous nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005), an Austrian Jewish Holocaust survivor who was interned in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. After World War II, Wiesenthal helped bring more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice. The message published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center mentioned the minister's Twitter account. Could that be what encouraged Óscar Puente to delete his unfortunate message?

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's previous criticisms of Pedro Sánchez's government

It should be noted that this is not the first time that the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been critical of Pedro Sánchez's government. In December 2019, the center denounced attacks by left-wing extremists, including members of the Podemos and United Left parties and the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), against a conference of Palestinian, Muslim, and Jewish intellectuals held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid.

The center criticized the fact that the then Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Socialist Margarita Robles, said nothing about an attack committed very close to the headquarters of her ministry: "both you, Madam Minister, and Mr. Malki should have publicly blessed a meeting that aims at presenting a solution to the Middle East conflict, based on coexistence and economic cooperation," said the center in a statement. The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced: "it is apparent that the Spanish Government has no interest in a peace process, even when it takes place and is violently abused on Spanish soil."

Furthermore, in November 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on the European Commission to investigate the Spanish government (and also the governments of France and Ireland) "for Alleged Continued Funding of Palestinian Terror Organizations." The center's statement noted that "Spain, France and Ireland have agreed to continue funding to Palestinian NGOs, even in the absence of any assurance that their aid is not funneled through the recipient Palestinian NGOs to terror organizations actively involved in murdering Israelis."

In relation to this petition, on July 29, 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the participation of the terrorist group PFLP in a rally of the BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc, parliamentary partner of Pedro Sánchez's government) in Santiago de Compostela. As you may recall, this fact was made known by Counting Stars on July 25 of that year and has been repeated year after year, given the absolute inaction of the Sánchez government. This very week, as we saw this Friday, the BNG asked for "a very strong applause" for that terrorist organization at its rally, a fact denounced again by Contando Estrelas and that has been silenced by all other Spanish media, something truly unusual.

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Photo: PSOE. Spanish Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, with Transport Minister Óscar Puente at a PSOE public event in Valladolid on June 1, 2024.