Antisemitism continues to surge across Europe, with recent anti-Jewish incidents in Spain and Germany leaving Jewish communities shocked and outraged.

On Tuesday, a children’s bookstore in Sant Cugat, a small town by Barcelona, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and slogans.

An unknown individual spray-painted messages — including “Zionist” and “accomplice to genocide” — along with a Palestinian flag across the bookstore’s facade.

The store’s owner, Mont Soler, voiced her “deepest rejection” of this act of anti-Jewish hatred.

“This attack is not only against my bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence and respect that I have always stood for,” Soler wrote in a post on Instagram.

The Jewish Community of Barcelona (CJB) also condemned the incident, expressing solidarity with the store’s owner and urging the authorities to take action.

“This attack is not just against a landmark bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence, respect, and diversity that should define our society,” CJB said in a statement.

“Antisemitism and all forms of intolerance have no place in Sant Cugat, in Catalonia, or anywhere else,” the statement read.

This incident comes amid a surge in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment across Europe and around the world since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

On Wednesday, a shop owner in Flensburg, a small town in northern Germany, ignited outrage by displaying a sign in his store window that read, “Jews are forbidden here.”

The sign also said, “Nothing personal, not even antisemitism, I just can’t stand you.”

According to 60-year-old shop owner Hans Platen-Reisch, the sign was intended as a protest against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, but he insisted it was not meant to be antisemitic.

“Jews live in Israel, and I can’t tell who supports the strikes and who doesn’t,” Platen-Reisch told a local news outlet.

“To me, it’s hypocrisy. They always say history must not repeat itself, and then they do the same themselves,” he continued.

Social media photos reveal the interior of his shop, featuring a Reich war flag — a symbol used by Nazi Germany during World War II — behind his desk, a RAF poster referring to the far-left terror group Red Army Faction on the wall, and a Palestinian flag displayed in the window.

Shortly after the incident, the Flensburg prosecutor’s office filed five criminal complaints and opened an investigation into Platen-Reisch on suspicion of incitement to hatred.

Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, denounced the incident as a shocking display of hatred and called for swift legal action.

“This is clear antisemitism, with direct connections to the Nazi period, when Jews were boycotted and signs like these were widespread,” Klein said in an interview with German television.

“This must not be tolerated under any circumstances,” he continued.

German Education Minister Karin Prien, the first Jewish woman to hold a federal ministerial post in Germany, also condemned the incident and expressed strong support for the Jewish community.

“Anyone who expresses or justifies antisemitism opposes everything our democratic life represents,” Prien told a local newspaper. “Let there be no doubt: We will not tolerate antisemitism – not in Flensburg, not in Germany, not anywhere in the world.”

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, voiced his strong condemnation of the incident.

“The 1930s are back! In Flensburg, ‘Jews forbidden’ is once again hanging in a shop window — in the year 2025. Just like back then, in the streets, cafés and shops of the 1930s,” Prosor wrote in a post on X.

“This is exactly how it started — step by step, sign by sign. It is the same old hatred, only in a new guise,” the Israeli diplomat continued.

Die 30er-Jahre sind zurück!

In Flensburg hängt wieder „Juden verboten“ im Schaufenster – im Jahr 2025. Wie damals in den Straßen, Cafés und Geschäften der 1930er.

Genau so hat es angefangen – Schritt für Schritt, Schild für Schild. Es ist der gleiche alte Hass, nur in einer… pic.twitter.com/seZmJ4OPsv

— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) September 18, 2025

The Trump administration is seeking congressional approval to sell Israel $6.4 billion in support equipment and weapons including attack helicopters and troop carriers, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Israel‘s military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure.

The news of the proposed sale came days before world leaders were set to gather in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly next week, which the UN Security Council is also due to hold a high-level meeting on Gaza.

The planned package includes a deal worth $3.8 billion for 30 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and $1.9 billion for 3,250 infantry assault vehicles for the Israeli army.

Another $750 million worth of support parts for armored personnel carriers and power supplies are also working its way through the sale process, one of the people said.

US Republican President Donald Trump’s full-throated support for Israel‘s military contrasts with growing wariness about Israel‘s campaign in Gaza among Democrats.

On Thursday, a group of US senators introduced the first Senate resolution to urge recognition of a Palestinian state and more than half of Democrats in the Senate recently voted against further arms sales.

The Wall Street Journal reported the potential helicopter and vehicle sales on Friday.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced legislation this week that would strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status if they allow foreign nationals from countries deemed adversaries of the United States to serve on their boards.

The bill, called the Nonprofit Governance Integrity Act, targets tax-exempt organizations under sections 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, a broad category that includes charities, social welfare groups, and trade associations. Religious institutions such as churches would be exempt.

In a statement on Wednesday, Cotton said nonprofits “that receive tax breaks should be completely free from malign foreign influence,” and argued that nationals of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba should not be in positions of influence within American nonprofits.

Cotton has long been a vocal critic of loose laws allowing adversarial regimes such as those in Tehran, Beijing, and Moscow to gain influence in the US through means such as buying farmland on American soil or in this case serving on nonprofit boards, warning that adversaries seek to undermine US institutions. The legislation would define those countries as “Foreign Entities of Concern” and penalize nonprofits by revoking their tax-exempt status if their boards include nationals from those nations.

Moreover, Cotton has recently voiced concern over radical nonprofits tied to the Middle East. Earlier this month, Cotton urged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to launch a probe into the leadership of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a far-left group which organizes anti-Israel demonstrations. Aisha Nizar, a leader of the PYM, recently encouraged supporters to take actions to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of America’s most advanced military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.

In the letter, Cotton encouraged the FBI to “immediately examine Nizar’s actions and take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat.”

Last week, Cotton also penned a letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon drawing attention to the growing influence of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) nonprofit organization in Philadelphia schools. CAIR, an organization that has been accused of having ties to terrorist organizations such as Hamas, recently announced that it would partner with the Philadelphia public school system.

“It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in the letter. “As I noted in a previous letter, the Department of Justice listed CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in the largest terrorism-financing case in US history. Further, CAIR-Philadelphia’s executive director, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, stated that Israeli ‘occupation’ was the reason for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.”

While Cotton’s office pitched the latest measure as closing a loophole for foreign influence, the proposal could face resistance. Legal experts may challenge the constitutionality of banning individuals from nonprofit boards based on nationality, raising equal protection and due process concerns. Nonprofit leaders could also push back, warning that the rules would impose new compliance burdens and restrict a push for more diverse leadership.