Three elderly Jewish women, including a Holocaust survivor, were forced to leave a national museum in Madrid on Saturday after being verbally harassed for openly displaying Jewish symbols, with officials now facing mounting backlash for shielding the aggressors rather than the victims.

First reported by the Spanish news outlet Okdiario, the three women were visiting the National Museum Reina Sofía in central Madrid when other visitors spotted them wearing a Star of David necklace and carrying a small Israeli flag.

At that point, a group of people started attacking them verbally, shouting antisemitic insults and calling them “crazy child killers.”

Rather than intervening against the instigators, museum officials expelled the Israeli women, telling them to leave because “some visitors were disturbed that they are Jewish.”

A security guard also told the group to hide their Jewish symbols, insisting they could not be displayed inside the museum.

Even though one of them pointed out that Spanish law allows people to wear religious symbols and carry national flags in public institutions, they were still forcibly removed from the building despite not breaking any rules.

The incident has sparked public outrage, with museum personnel leaving the victims even more exposed and vulnerable, and no action taken against those who hurled insults and provoked the disruption.

As a state-affiliated cultural institution under Spain’s Culture Ministry, the Reina Sofía is internationally recognized as one of the country’s leading contemporary art museums.

In the past, the museum has also faced criticism for hosting anti-Israel demonstrations and presenting an exhibition titled “From the River to the Sea,” a popular slogan among pro-Palestinian activists that has been widely interpreted as a genocidal call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) strongly condemned the latest incident at the museum, calling it “deeply troubling and unacceptable,” and urged authorities to take immediate steps to protect Jewish visitors and ensure such harassment does not happen again.

“Instead of protecting those subjected to antisemitic abuse, the apparent decision to remove the victims raises serious concerns about discrimination within a public cultural institution,” EJC wrote in a post on X.

“Jewish identity must never become grounds for exclusion. Such conduct demands full clarification, clear accountability, and decisive action to ensure that antisemitism is confronted without ambiguity,” the statement read. 

The expulsion of three elderly Israeli visitors, including a Holocaust survivor, from Madrid’s Reina Sofía museum after they were insulted as “child killers” and targeted for displaying Jewish symbols is deeply troubling and unacceptable.

The women were reportedly asked to leave… pic.twitter.com/KA9UixCYvz

— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) February 16, 2026

The Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) group, a leading pro-Israel organization in Spain, also condemned the incident and announced it will pursue legal action against the Museum Reina Sofía, alleging discrimination and the promotion of hate from a public institution.

“The legal action will be directed both at the institution and its top official, the museum director, Manuel Segade,” ACOM wrote in a post on X, adding that the museum’s actions reflect “a persistent pattern of using political agendas, engaging in discrimination, and promoting narratives of hate against the State of Israel and the Jewish-Israeli community from a publicly funded institution.”

“A public institution should never be used as a platform for sectarian activism,” the statement continued. 

ACOM emprenderá acciones legales contra el Museo Reina Sofía por discriminación y posible promoción de odio desde una institución pública

ACOM anuncia que emprenderá acciones legales contra el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ante lo que considera una conducta…

— Acción y Comunicación sobre Oriente Medio – ACOM (@ACOM_es) February 16, 2026

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Spain has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Still, Spain stands out as one of the most extreme cases, with experts warning that antisemitic violence and anti-Zionist rhetoric have moved beyond a social phenomenon to, in many instances, being state-promoted and legitimized as a political tool.

In particular, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and several members of his left-wing party have come under mounting criticism from the country’s political and Jewish leaders, who accuse them of fueling antisemitic hostility.

Sánchez has repeatedly issued pro-Hamas statements, falsely accusing Israel of “genocide” and of violating international law in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

“Protecting your country and your society is one thing, but bombing hospitals and killing innocent boys and girls with hunger is another thing entirely,” the Spanish leader said during a televised speech last year.

“That isn’t defending yourself – that’s not even attacking. It’s exterminating defenseless people. It’s breaking all the rules of humanitarian law,” he said.

Sánchez has also voiced solidarity with the “Palestinian people and their cause,” while praising anti-Israel demonstrations for championing what he called “just causes.”

Across the country, political leaders have accused Sánchez of exploiting the war in Gaza to deflect attention from his corruption scandals, recent electoral losses, and growing public dissatisfaction with his government.

According to the Spanish Observatory of Antisemitism, antisemitic incidents in Spain have surged by 567 percent from 2022 to 2024, with the trend expected to have continued into last year.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has launched a fierce anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining and isolating the Jewish state on the international stage.

In September, the Spanish government passed a law to take “urgent measures to stop the genocide in Gaza,” banning trade in defense material and dual-use products from Israel, as well as imports and advertising of products originating from Israeli settlements.

Spanish officials also announced that they would bar entry to individuals involved in what they called a “genocide against Palestinians” and block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace.

An employee at an official store for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics in Italy has been fired after repeatedly called out “Free Palestine” to a group of Israeli sports fans, Olympic organizers said on Sunday in a statement to Reuters.

Milano Cortina Games organizers said in a statement they have taken action to maintain “a neutral, respectful, and welcoming environment” at the Olympics. They said the incident took place inside the official shop at the Cortina Sliding Center, the venue that is hosting bobsled, luge, and skeleton during the Winter Games this year. Israel competed in skeleton last week, among other sports, and its bobsled team had their first Olympic competition on Monday.

“It is not appropriate for Games staff or contractors to express personal political views while carrying out their duties or to direct such remarks at visitors,” Olympic organizers added about the incident. “Those involved were reassured, and the individual concerned was removed from the shift.”

The store employee was identified as Ali Mohamed Hassan, according to StopAntisemitism. On Friday, the watchdog organization shared on Instagram a video of the confrontation and said it took place earlier that same day.

The clip shows a woman inside an official Olympic retail store filming Hassan as she says, “What were you saying? Say it again.” Hassan is then heard repeatedly saying, “Free Palestine.”

Ethiopian-Israeli chef and cookbook author Beejhy Barhany spoke with The Algemeiner about her recent decision to close her restaurant in New York because of consistent antisemitic harassment and even death threats that increased after she made the establishment kosher.

“The harassment has been going on for years,” said the owner of Tsion Cafe in Harlem. “It’s outside agitators, white supremacists, racist, antisemitism. I’ve been targeted by that … it kind of became unbearable. It became a burden and unsafe … to the point where somebody called and said, ‘We’re going to come and shoot you all.’” She detailed experiencing constant harassment through phone calls and her restaurant even being vandalized with swastikas.

The harassment “got worse” when Tsion Cafe, which served Ethiopian Israeli cuisine, became fully kosher after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Barhany said.

“After Oct. 7, we wanted to embrace our Jewishness, our proud heritage, and become fully kosher and vegan. The intention was that we are Jewish and we are here to celebrate our Jewishness. And that kind of amplified [the harassment] even more,” she noted.

“The intentions were very good,” Barhany continued. “We wanted to bring the diverse flavors of the Africa diaspora and have a dialogue and understanding — but apparently people took it in a different reaction. In a wrong understanding. That’s what happened, to the point where we said for the sake of safety and our mental health, I said, I cannot deal with this on a daily basis … because of the affiliation of being Israeli Jewish, all of the sudden, you are portrayed in a different way.”

Barhany was born in Ethiopia in a Jewish community and in 1983 moved to Israel, where she lived in a kibbutz and served in the Israel Defense Forces. She moved to New York in the early 2000s and opened Tsion Cafe in 2014.

Barhany announced on Feb. 12 that she was closing the restaurant. In a post announcing the closure on Instagram, she wrote: “To those who feel distant from us or disagree … we invite you to keep an open heart, to learn, and – if you’re willing – to engage in respectful conversation. Our hope is simple: that curiosity can replace assumptions, that learning can soften walls, and that, one day, we might even break bread together and build bridges.”

The decision to close Tsion Cafe was not easy, Barhany said. “We are invested in Harlem. Harlem is home,” she added. “We are part of the community. When we first opened, the community embraced us with warm welcoming, and we celebrated Ethiopian Jewish culture.”

Barhany contacted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) several times about the harassment targeting Tsion Cafe, but authorities did not provide much help, she told The Algemeiner. The restaurant owner said she was not looking to blame authorities for the continued harassment she faced but urged police to pay more attention to such complaints by business owners.

“Take it seriously – complaints like this,” she said. “Hopefully next time, a small business can complain about any harassment and people will take it seriously. As an immigrant, we are here to contribute, we provide and support the economy so they shouldn’t look at it and not pay attention, only [give attention] to big names. We all contribute to this society in our small way.”

Barhany said she hopes in the future to still serve Ethiopian Jewish cuisine through immersive cultural events and catering opportunities.

“What we need to do is really build bridges and highlight and amplify the different Jewish communities and celebrate our diversity,” she explained. “The Jewish world is a lot more delicious and diverse, a mosaic that is worth celebrating. And we should empower and celebrate one another. And I tried to do it in my own small part, through food, which is a universal language to engage with people, but yet people weaponize it and politicize it for no reason.”

“We’re still here in a different form to serve the community and nourish the community,” she added. “Through food we can help spread love, understanding and respect. And I hope to do that one bite at a time.”

Barhany is the founder of the Beta Israel of North America Cultural Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Ethiopian Jewish heritage.