The onus is not on those of us who are Jewish to explain why we find this salute deeply offensive. Almost All civilized people in Europe understand this, and don’t avoid the gesture just because they’re afraid of being misunderstood.
Every community has their history and traditions. All catalan children are taught this story about the origin of the catalan flag:
The story goes that Count of Barcelona and many other Catalan territories Guifré el Pilós or Wilfred the Hairy was fighting alongside the coincidentally named Carles el Calb or Charles the Bald, the Frankish ruler, against the Moorish Governor of Lleida, Lobo ibn Mohammed.
Wilfred the Hairy was seriously wounded and as Catalonia did not exist yet, it did not have a flag so the next day the Catalan troops would have to go into battle without their leader or a standard to rally to.
Before the battle began, Charles the Bald plunged his hands in Wilfred’s wound and wiped them across a golden shield and, with the shield, held high led the Catalan troops to victory.
For this reason, the four red stripes on a golden background of the Catalan flag are known as Els Quatre Dits de Sang ot The Four Fingers of Blood.
[Taken from here]
Wilfred the Hairy was a count that lived in Xth century. Yesterday you said that:
@d_r Your legend from half a millenium ago is completely irrelevant.
Sorry but no. The guys in that picture somebody posted with bad faith so people from around the world would think they were doing the Roman/fascist salute, were not doing the Roman/fascist salute.
Another example: the catalan national day is September 11th. Following your argument (legend centuries old are irrelevant, everybody knows what means raising a hand = everybody knows what happened on September 11th), to have a National Day on September 11th is an offense to all Americans. But when we the Catalans celebrate September 11th we are celebrating September 11th 1714. We don’t mean to offend anybody by celebrating September 11th or by raising a hand with four fingers open.
Having said that, I agree that pro-independence demonstrators should stop doing so because it can be misunderstood by foreigners who don’t know (and obviously don’t have to know) catalan legends.
I welcome and respect civilized spanish people and respectful people against catalan independence, but you should understand I get offended when sombebody accuses pro independence demonstrators of being fascists. If you’re looking for fascists, you’ll need to look to the other side. Franco’s supporters, not his victims: Neo-Nazi salutes seen at protest against Catalonia independence (29 Oct 2017).
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You should stop teaching that story, because is well known that it is false. Charles the Bald died in 877, while Wilfred’s appointment as Count of Barcelona started in 878; there is no historical evidence to support that narrative. The earliest appearance of the Senyera Real (Royal Flag) was when the Count of Barcelona was also the Prince of Aragon. No bloody blood involved.
I believe that In Spain, as in other Western European countries, and in addition to the fascist antisemitism of a small minority, anti-Jewish sentiment is also frequently associated with anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, anti-American, and anti-capitalist sentiments. Most probably you are going to find a lot more anti-Jewish sentiment among members and sympathizers of the anti-capitalist separatist CUP party than of the centrist constitutionalist Ciutadans party. It is not coincidental that the Spanish Federation of Jewish Communities has recently declared its support for the unity of Spain.
Some ancient Catalonians, so fondly remembered by Catalan nationalists, were also sometimes not very Jewish-friendly. The Jews of Barcelona, that at some point accounted for 15% of the population of the city, were either killed, forcibly converted, or expelled during riots in the late XIV century, one century earlier than in Aragon and some other regions of Spain. Nothing to be proud of.
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I agree, spaghetti and tomato sauce may be a much better explanation for the origins of the Bars of Aragon. Now seriously, this is not only my opinion, as this article of The Jerusalem Post says:
… “This is yet another demonstration of the extremism of far left independentist forces that have become mainstream in the Catalonian politics and how central and core their rabid antisemitism is to them.” … “What this means is that Catalonian politics and its independence movement are subject to massive anti-Israel and antisemitic bias, and that a potentially independent Catalonia could become an even hotter spot of anti-Israel activity in Europe,” …
Escalation:
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Don’t worry, if some of those charges are unfounded, they will have the right to appeal all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights, beyond the reach of Spanish judges. But some other charges—e.g. contempt of court—are, in my opinion, founded beyond any doubt.
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