Ben-Gvir Trolls Spain PM Over Migration Crisis Response

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir went viral for a sarcastic social media post trolling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez amid the late-July 2026 Ceuta migrant surge.

What happened

In late July 2026, an estimated 50,000–60,000 mostly young Moroccan men crossed into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta by land and sea. The influx caused chaos, dozens of drownings (reports ranged from the 40s to around 67), a Spanish military deployment, and the eventual voluntary return of most of the arrivals to Morocco.

Ben-Gvir posted a pointed message (shared in Spanish and other languages) that read:

“My congratulations to the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, for his deep commitment to welcoming immigration and ‘human diversity.’ As someone who demonstrates great concern for Hamas and the residents of Gaza, I call on you to translate words into actions: open the doors of Spain and grant refuge to the residents of Gaza who are seeking to emigrate. This is an excellent opportunity to contribute a little more to Spain’s ‘human diversity.’🇪🇸&🇵🇸”

The post was widely viewed as deliberate trolling—using Sánchez’s pro-immigration rhetoric and Spain’s critical stance toward Israel’s Gaza policies against him during a major migration crisis on Spanish territory.

The message spread rapidly across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and news outlets. Supporters of Ben-Gvir and critics of Sánchez/Spain’s foreign policy shared it as effective pushback against what they saw as Spanish hypocrisy on migration and the Middle East. Critics called it provocative and inflammatory, especially given existing tensions (Spain has been sharply critical of Israel, and Ben-Gvir has previously been banned from entering Spain).

It fit a broader pattern of online sniping between Israeli and Spanish figures during the Ceuta events, which also included conspiracy claims (e.g., from some Spanish voices and celebrities like Javier Bardem) that Israel somehow benefited from or engineered the migrant surge—claims that lacked evidence and were widely rejected as such.