Javier Bardem shares post linking Israel to Ceuta crisis; Huckabee fires back

Spanish actor Javier Bardem is facing sharp backlash, including from a top U.S. diplomat, after resharing social media posts that suggested Israel benefits from the migrant crisis at Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta.

The “No Country for Old Men” star reposted an Instagram post suggesting Israel may have helped engineer the crisis, in which roughly 50,000 young Moroccan men stormed into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in late July. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Tuesday that roughly 72,000 migrants, many of them young Moroccan men, had crossed into Ceuta, with about 70,000 already returned to Morocco.

In the post, Mr. Bardem wrote, “We don’t know who engineered this crisis, but we know who benefits from a weakened, destabilized Spain: Israel and the Western far right eager to turn migration onto a weapon against Muslims.” 

Further in the post, he wrote, “Conclusion: this has nothing to do with Islam ‘invading’ Europe, and everything to do with punishing the loudest European government still willing to call a genocide a genocide.”

At least 72 people died in the crossing, according to confirmed counts, though local Ceuta officials have cited figures as high as 86. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez traveled to the enclave and said his government was working with Morocco to combat human-trafficking networks; Mr. Grande-Marlaska likewise blamed trafficking operations and called Morocco “a reliable partner.”

Bardem’s posts also invoked a 2019 message from Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the younger Netanyahu shared a map of the Spanish North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla with a caption urging Arabs and Muslims to “free” them — a post he has said was meant to highlight European double standards on Israeli-occupied territory. The full exchange dates back six years and involved no official Israeli government position, as Yair Netanyahu holds no elected office.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded on X over the weekend, dismissing the claim as a “laughable new blood libel” and mocking Mr. Bardem’s grasp of Middle East affairs. “This laughable new blood libel by another dim-witted actor, who is as qualified to talk about Israel as Charles Schumer is to offer tips on grilling burgers, actually blames Israel for the illegal immigrants flooding Spain,” Mr. Huckabee wrote, adding that Mr. Bardem was “’Dumb & Dumber’ rolled into one person.” The remarks came the same weekend Mr. Huckabee also mocked liberal commentator Cenk Uygur in a separate post over unrelated comments on Israel. Mr. Huckabee separately dismissed the Bardem-linked claims in a televised interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan, broadcast Monday, saying, “It sounds like Bardem needs to stick to reading a script that someone else wrote.” 

The posts were part of a far larger wave: Researchers with the Combat Antisemitism Movement found that 173 high-impact posts blaming Israel for the Ceuta crisis drew more than 100 million views on X within 72 hours, according to an Algemeiner report on the group’s findings. Mr. Bardem was named among the prominent figures amplifying the narrative, alongside commentator Candace Owens.

Mr. Bardem, a longtime, vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause who has previously accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza, spoke publicly about the crisis Tuesday at a Mallorca film festival, saying those with “a platform” should use it to share their views. He has not retracted the reposts.

Spain’s government has focused its public statements on border security, migrant returns and cooperation with Morocco and the European Union, rather than directly engaging with Mr. Bardem’s claims.