Members of Spain’s Jewish community have filed complaints with a French online platform over a mapping project that identifies Jewish businesses, Israeli companies, and firms operating in Israel in Catalonia, local Jewish community outlet Enfoque Judío reported.
According to Enfoque Judío, the project, called Barcelonaz, was launched by an unidentified group that describes itself as composed of “journalists, professors, and students.”
The Jerusalem Post visited Barcelonaz's website portal and verified the information in Enfoque Judío's report.
The initiative consists of a public, interactive, and collaborative map that marks Jewish-owned businesses, Israeli companies with interests in Spain, and Spanish or international corporations operating in Israel.
The website is hosted on the French platform GoGoCarto and currently lists 152 businesses and entities, Enfoque Judío reported. The project’s stated goal is to “understand how (Zionism) operates and the forms it takes, with the intention of making visible and denouncing the impact of its investments in our territory.”
Users are invited to donate and to submit additional establishments labeled as “Zionist,” based on criteria set by the project’s creators.
The launch of Barcelonaz comes amid broader concerns about antisemitism in Spain, according to Enfoque Judío.
The outlet reported that national and international Jewish organizations have publicly complained that antisemitism has been encouraged by left-wing groups in civil society and, according to those complaints, by members of the government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, particularly ministers from the allied party Sumar.
Normalization and spread of antisemitism in Spain
According to Enfoque Judío, repeated anti-Israel decisions by the government and the labeling of Israel as a “genocidal state” in the context of the Israel-Hamas War against the terrorist group have contributed to what the outlet described as the normalization and spread of antisemitism in Spain.
“Barcelonaz is not a harmless map: it is an instrument of stigmatization that contributes to this climate of hostility and, directly or indirectly, invites discrimination against Jews and Israeli citizens, the boycott of their businesses, and even violence. We already saw in Australia the process that led to the Sydney attack a few weeks ago,” a source involved in combating antisemitism told Enfoque Judío.
Enfoque Judío reported that Barcelona and Catalonia have, in recent years, become focal points of antisemitism described as being presented under the banner of “anti-Zionism,” including demonstrations, graffiti, boycott campaigns, and government and municipal decisions.
In its presentation, Barcelonaz describes itself as a “collective” project aimed at highlighting “the multiple branches of the Zionist economy in our city,” according to Enfoque Judío. The map includes sectors such as arms manufacturing, technology, tourism, energy, real estate, gastronomy, and education.
The project does not distinguish between Israeli companies, Jewish-owned local businesses, or multinational corporations operating in Israel, Enfoque Judío reported.
Listed entities include arms manufacturers such as Airbus, Indra, and Thales; technology companies including IBM and Microsoft; logistics firms such as Siemens and Volvo; energy companies, insurers, and 39 financial institutions ranging from Deutsche Bank to BBVA. The map also includes real estate and tourism businesses, kosher food establishments, and the Hatikva Jewish school in Barcelona.
According to Enfoque Judío, users are encouraged to expand the list, with selection criteria prioritizing sectors such as arms and cybersecurity, particularly where connections to Zionism are described as less “obvious.”
Members of the Spanish Jewish community have submitted complaints to GoGoCarto, comparing the initiative to historical practices that preceded the boycott of Jewish businesses, Kristallnacht, and the Holocaust, Enfoque Judío reported.
In a letter cited by Enfoque Judío, complainants requested the removal of the site, stating that the project “clearly has an antisemitic and discriminatory character, as it seeks to identify and stigmatize a population on the basis of its religious affiliation, real or supposed.”
The letter further argues that the initiative violates French laws on incitement to hatred and discrimination and calls on GoGoCarto to “adopt the necessary measures to bring this practice to an end,” citing Articles 225-1 and 24 of the July 29, 1881 law on freedom of the press, according to Enfoque Judío.