Spanish Campaign Asks Public How They'd React to Oct. 7-Style Attack
Translated & summarized from Israel Hayom by baba
A new campaign by the organization ACOM in Madrid uses buses to compare the July influx into Spain's Ceuta enclave with the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. The campaign asks Spaniards how they would react to a similar massacre on their own soil, suggesting Israel acted justifiably to defend itself. ACOM criticizes the Spanish government's stance on Israel and aims to reframe the narrative surrounding the October 7th attacks.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- ACOM launched a campaign in Madrid comparing the Ceuta border incident to the October 7th Hamas attack.
- The campaign asks Spaniards how they would react if a similar massacre occurred in Spain.
- Messages on buses suggested Israel acted justifiably to defend itself.
- The organization criticized the Spanish government's perceived hostile stance towards Israel.
- ACOM aims to reframe the narrative and counter victim-blaming regarding October 7th.
A new campaign launched by the organization ACOM in Madrid aims to provoke public reflection by asking Spaniards how they would respond if the events of October 7th occurred on Spanish soil. Ahead of the third anniversary of the Hamas attack, ACOM placed messages on two buses comparing the mass influx into Ceuta in July to the October 7th Hamas assault on Israel. The buses, which drove through central Madrid on October 6th and 7th for approximately ten hours daily, displayed questions such as, "Did Ceuta make you feel threatened?" and "Imagine they came to kill us. This was October 7th in Israel." Other messages stated, "Israel did what it had to do: defend itself" and "Don't make the victims the guilty party."
ACOM reported that the campaign reached around 220,000 people on the street, excluding social media exposure. The campaign juxtaposes the July 30th events in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, with the October 7th attack. According to ACOM's report, tens of thousands of people arrived in Ceuta from Morocco, overwhelming border controls and creating a sense of emergency. In contrast, the report details the October 7th attack, where armed militants infiltrated Israeli communities, killed approximately 1,200 people, and abducted over 250.
ACOM emphasizes that they do not claim the events are identical, stating, "Ceuta was not October 7th." Instead, the organization argues the comparison illustrates a nation's natural response when its citizens feel threatened. The campaign's core argument is that if an incursion into Spain's border, even without mass murder, prompts a demand for national defense, then Spanish citizens should recognize Israel's right to defend itself under similar, albeit more severe, circumstances. The campaign also criticizes the Spanish government under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, accusing it of adopting an anti-Israel stance through actions like recognizing a Palestinian state and pressuring for an embargo.
ACOM contends that Spain applies a different standard to Israel than it would to itself, urging the public to consider what they would want their own country to do in a similar crisis. The campaign's final message targets what ACOM calls a "reversal of the narrative," aiming to counter what it perceives as attempts to blame the victim and obscure the reasons for the war's commencement. For ACOM, October 7th is the starting point for evaluating Israel's right to self-defense.
