On July 30, 2026, between 65,000 and 72,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain over the course of several days, unleashing one of Europe’s largest sudden border crises in recent years, along with an unhinged anti-Israel and anti-American conspiracy theory.
Most entered through Ceuta, one of two Spanish autonomous cities—along with nearby Melilla—located on the northern coast of Africa. Although both territories are internationally recognized as part of Spain, Morocco claims sovereignty over them, making them a recurring source of diplomatic tension.
Extremist social media personality and terror-sympathizer Hasan Piker seized upon the chaos to accuse the U,S. and Israel of orchestrating the mass infiltration, claiming:
Israel and America got the Moroccan government to send like 40,000 ppl into Spanish administered territory .. it’s not even on some conspiracy sh*t either, like The New York Times is openly covering it as such..it was classic Israel in the way that they did it, in the shameless way that they took ownership over it..even The New York Times was like ok well now we have to investigate what’s actually going on here.
Hasan says the US and Israel were behind the immigration situation surrounding Morocco and Spain
“Israel and America got the Moroccan government to send like 40,000 ppl into Spanish administered territory..it’s not even on some conspiracy sh*t either, like the New York Times is… pic.twitter.com/C2YhooBx0T
— yeet (@Awk20000) August 2, 2026
Though The Times covered the mass infiltration, its story did not mention one word about Israel.
In his personal Substack column, Guardian columnist Owen Jones likewise drank the conspiracy Kool-Aid (“Ceuta: Did Israel and the U.S. Engineer the Crisis?“).
In Spain, the conspiracy theory found a home in a more mainstream setting. On Aug. 3, El Periódico, one of Spain’s leading daily newspapers, published an article under the unequivocal headline: “The U.S. and Israel Question Spain’s Sovereignty over Ceuta as Europe Focuses on Immigration.”
Conspiracy Theory Takes A Dip In Mainstream Spanish Media
The headline presented one diplomat’s opinion as though it reflected the official position of the State of Israel. The article relied primarily on a post on X by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, who, referring to Spain’s past criticism of Israel, wrote that Spain should explain “why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa.”
However, El Periódico omitted a crucial fact.
Shortly afterward, Israel’s Chargé d’Affaires in Spain, Dana Erlich—the country’s highest-ranking diplomatic representative in Madrid—publicly clarified that “The comment made by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN on the issue does not represent the position of the State of Israel.”
That clarification was decisive. Yet El Periódico chose to leave it out.
Given that Israel’s official representative in Spain explicitly stated that Danon’s remarks do not reflect the government’s position, his remarks in no way constitute evidence that Israel officially questions Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.
The article goes further. Under the section titled “Israeli Support,” El Periódico claimed that Israel has “its own expansionist project based on the concept of ‘Greater Israel.'” Yet it provides no evidence to support that assertion.
The concept of Eretz Israel Hashlema (“Greater Israel”) is not an official doctrine of the State of Israel. Rather, it is a political and ideological concept embraced by certain groups, whose meaning has evolved over time. Successive Israeli governments have withdrawn completely from the Sinai Peninsula, dismantled every Israeli settlement in Gaza, and participated in negotiations aimed at establishing a Palestinian state. Reducing Israeli policy to a supposed “Greater Israel” agenda ignores this historical record and strips away essential context.
The article’s second line of argument is equally flawed. It cites a 2019 social media post by Yair Netanyahu comparing the situation in the West Bank with Ceuta and Melilla. But Yair Netanyahu is simply the prime minister’s son—not an Israeli government official. His comments therefore represent a personal opinion, not Israeli state policy.
Moreover, El Periódico omitted that after the old post resurfaced online in recent days, the younger Netanyahu clarified Aug. 1 that he was not endorsing Morocco’s territorial claims. Rather, he said he intended “to highlight the irony of Spain criticizing Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and calling to ‘Free Palestine,’ even though this region is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.” Readers may agree or disagree with that argument, but omitting his explanation deprives them of essential context.
Finally, El Periódico cited a report by the Kohelet Policy Forum describing Ceuta and Melilla as “two cities in Morocco over which Spain claims sovereignty.”
But Kohelet is an independent think tank, not an official institution of the Israeli government. Presenting a privately produced policy paper as evidence of Israel’s official foreign policy conflates independent analysis with state policy.
The result is a baseless narrative relying on individual statements, social media posts, and the work of a private think tank to conclude that the Israeli government supports Morocco’s claims over Ceuta and Melilla.