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on Thursday, July 30, widely circulated social media videos showed tens of thousands of mostly young men pouring across the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. I know you saw this, but how do we make sense of the competing explanations, the conspiracy theories, the right and left wing spin, and the storied history of this region? Fox News initially reported that these migrants had crossed into northern Spain, later correcting the mistake. While right wing politicians and pundits in France, Germany and England claimed they would inevitably be heading toward their respective countries, they raised the alarm regarding what is called the Schengen area. That's the 29 country free travel zone within the European Union. It was named after the village in Luxembourg where the agreement was originally signed in 1985. Had Spain allowed 72,000 people, according to their own government numbers, to access this Schengen area in violation of EU agreements? Then there were the conspiracy theories suggesting that Israel and the US had orchestrated this crisis with Morocco to punish the vocal pro Palestine political stance of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Meanwhile, unverified social media content continued to spread. One reel showed an attractive young woman film and waving at the jubilant men rushing past her, and then claimed, either in the caption or the comments depending on the post, that she had disappeared after agreeing to show two of them where they could get something to eat. There were no citations and no news stories have supported this. Other unverified videos showed things like shirtless brown men jumping onto cars or pounding on the windows of cars at cowering local women or attempting to steal things from stores. There were even dramatic street scene images like the one of a man being stabbed in the throat in broad daylight and then collapsing. In a town of just 80,000 people, this sudden influx, almost doubling their population for a day or two, has created significant tension. And then there were the bodies washing up on the beach of those who tragically drowned while attempting the water crossing. Julian I'm Julian Walker and this is Conspirituality Podcast where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience and authoritarian extremism. You can find us on Instagram at conspiritualitypod. And lately I've been posting there too on my account, which is reality and meaning. So come find me there. If you'd like to support our work here, you can either join via Apple subscriptions for $5 a month to gain access to our lovingly Create Monday bonus offerings, or you could Instead go to patreon.com conspirituality where for the same 5 bucks you'll get to peruse an over 5 year long archive of fantastic bonus episodes and listen to every single Thursday and Saturday episode completely ad free. As independent media creators, we really do appreciate your support. Okay, let's get into it. First of all, no Fox News, Ceuta is not in Northern Spain, as the banner overlay on your initial reporting stated. In all the excitement to crank up the moral panic machine, you might have misread North Africa because Ceuta and the nearby sister town of Melilla inhabit a little sliver of the Moroccan coastline still ruled over by Spain from the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. That history is fascinating and rich, so put a pin in it for now because we'll come back around the surrounding territory of Morocco is separated from Ceuta by a border fence that extends out into the sea. Most of those who attempted the mass crossing did so by gathering at the shoreline and exploiting lapses in border security to just swim out about 33ft into the sea around the border fence, or even just pick their way across the rocky beach. But a few thousand chose to make a grueling 3 mile swim or inflatable ride from the closest Moroccan town to the beach of the Spanish governed city. A significant minority also crossed by land after charging at the border gates or climbing over fences. As of Wednesday, 88 people have been reported either drowned or having been crushed in the stampede on the Spanish side of the border and 11 dead on the Moroccan side, according to news outlets. Human rights groups and the Spanish authorities. The Moroccan border guards initially seem to have stood down while truckloads of migrants seemed to arrive in an organized way and begin the crossing. Later in the day, though, those border guards pushed back against the crowds using batons and tear gas and even water cannons. Spanish officials also said that they recognized from their video footage the presence of Moroccan intelligence agents embedded within the migrants and sort of directing them. They characterized this as evidence of hybrid warfare designed to test weaknesses in border security and gauge the response of the Spanish military. So more on that in a little bit too. Now, like you, I'm sure I don't watch much Fox News, but in surveying media coverage of this event, I was reminded of their panic mongering around the so called migrant caravan. Remember this? During the run up to the 2018 midterm elections, the Washington Post tracked Fox News mentioning this supposedly terrifying invading migrant caravan around eight times per hour. In the seven days before those midterm elections, the caravan of refugees that started in Honduras and made its way north through Guatemala and Mexico was described on air as an invading force, bringing diseases like smallpox, leprosy and tuberculosis and concealing dangerous gang members. All of this was supposedly being organized and perhaps funded by the final boss, Fox boogeyman George Soros. But after election day, Fox News just stopped talking about it and a few days later, waves of that 6 to 7,000 strong group actually did arrive at the Tijuana border where it then splintered and dissipated. A small number were able to seek asylum in America, others found their way into humanitarian aid programs in Mexico, and a majority simply went back home or wherever else they were able to find refuge. The first arrivals of this scary caravan, about 80 gay and transgender migrants who split off from the main group to avoid discrimination and harassment and pooled their resources. These refugees were supported, the gay and trans refugees, in navigating the asylum process by advocates who are sensitive to the severe persecution they face in Central America, which is why they left. It's hard to track down exact numbers, but sources say that only a few hundred were granted asylum in the US based on what are technically called credible fear interviews. Like they're really fleeing from oppression and danger. Another thousand or so voluntarily accepted free bus rides from the Mexican government back to their countries of origin, and several hundred applied for asylum in Mexico with 5,200 troops deployed at the border to repel them. Most who slipped through then immediately sought out border guards so as to initiate asylum applications. It's estimated then that only a few hundred were able to actually evade detection and, and enter the US Illegally. But I take that trip down memory lane or nightmare alley to say that fear sells. Fear drives views and ratings. It sells detergent and other products and it drives voter turnout. So at least Fox is consistent.
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Yeah, this looks like Bill Melusion down on the Texas border under Joe Biden. That's what it looks like. I mean, look, this is crazy because remember, as part of the European Union, you get into Spain, you get in everywhere, you can go anywhere. These people are coming over. They have no resources, no money. A lot of them don't even have a shirt on their back. So what are they going to do? I mean, they get to a point of desperation. This is no way to rule a country. This open borders policy that the Democrats are now advocating, have advocated in the past, I mean, look at it. That is just chaotic. And the poor citizens who actually pay the taxes and live there, I mean, this is what they got to deal with. That's coming to a neighborhood near you.
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The White House is now responding, Jason, of a brand new statement just in. President Trump has long warned Europe what would happen if they continue to implement far left globalist policies, including enabling mass migration. Spain and other countries who have adopted these destructive philosophies should immediately reverse course or risk their own demise. Do you think Spain's going to heed that warning?
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Predictably, migrant crises anywhere else in the world are an opportunity to talk about Joe Biden and how Democrats want open borders. The fact is that undocumented border crossings did spike in the initial years of the Biden administration. This was due in significant part to the devastating effects of COVID on countries to the south of us and, and in part to political deterioration, violence and human rights abuses in oppressive or failed states like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti, as well as the very successful economic and job market recovery that was happening in the US at the time. But, and don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a good thing. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, the Biden administration deported on average 3.5 times more people per month than the first Trump administration. It also outperformed the Trump administration's percentage of returns after border stops. So the number of people who actually got sent back. Now, I point this out only to indicate how fabricated this open border propaganda talking point has always been Biden's old boss. In fact, Barack Obama also deported more people than any American president in history, while also attempting and failing to pass legislation that would have protected undocumented children or parents of children born in the U.S. in fact, the GOP's patron saint, Ronald Reagan's immigration policy would have been to the left of both Biden and Obama, and so too George W. Bush. I would argue that the stark reality of this disappointing contrast illustrates how effective the right wing propaganda machine has been at convincing Democrats they have to overcompensate so as not to be painted as pro open borders. But all of this may be moot now that we have a democratic socialist platform gaining some ground on the left that actually has many of the policies that outlets like Fox have dishonestly attributed to the Democrats in the past. So buckle up for the midterms, I guess, because the right has a lot of ammunition and I would think they have a real edge in being able to push swayable voters into their camp. That's just my opinion. J.D. vance, to go back to Ceuta, shared the Fox coverage that included the Northern Spain mistaken banner. Donald Trump called it a catastrophe, saying it looked like an invasion of hundreds of thousands, which he said is small time compared to what will happen in America if Democrats are elected in the midterms. Here we are again. He repeated the false talking point that Biden let in 25 million people when the truth is closer to 6 million temporarily let in as asylum seekers through legal channels while their cases are being processed. And that can take years. Meanwhile, the Biden administration also oversaw the deportation or removal of 3 million people, which doubled up on Trump's first term number European right wingers were all too eager to keep up with the fear mongering and scapegoating. So Robert Jenrick of the British far right Reform Party that many analysts say are poised to potentially win a general election, wrote that CEO is our future if we don't secure our border. Those men are on their way to Calais. This was echoed by the leader of that party, Nigel Farage, in a video claiming that the migrants were on their way to Britain. Alice Vidal of the AfD, that's alternative for Deutschland, the far right party that Elon Musk endorsed and addressed, remember via that 1984 style video call on a massive screen in early 2025. She disagreed with Farage because, you see, Germany is really the likely destination. Giorgia Meloni, longtime Mussolini admirer and president of Italy, likewise castigated what she called the Sanchez government's immigration policy, saying that the Italian left advocated the same model. In a gesture of pure political theater, she suspended the Schengen agreement for one month so as to enforce mandatory border checks on anyone coming from Spain into Italy Former Hungarian President Viktor Orban chimed in with similar messages, while Denmark's Prime Minister called on the EU to suspend Spain from Schengen. But arrival on the shores of Ceuta is by no means a guaranteed gateway into the rest of Europe via the Schengen area, because there are still mandatory checks on anyone trying to cross the Mediterranean into actual mainland Spain. Besides, Spanish authorities say that around 70,000 of the 72,000 who crossed over had returned to Morocco by Sunday morning. But here's where the conspiracy narratives take a strange turn. Remember the young woman waving at the still wet Moroccan men running past her from the beach into the town? There are no news reports confirming the social media rumor that she went missing, but a next iteration of this meme included an AI generated zoom in on a profile of her face, which showed the classic anti Semitic caricature of an almost anatomically impossible, impressively hooked nose. Because you see, it is the Jews who want the west to be overrun by non white immigrants. Or so says the infamous Great Replacement Theory, which is often posited as a plot by Jewish elites to drive demographic change that will weaken white populations so that they are easier to control. You remember those delightful guys with tiki torches in Charlottesville chanting Jews will not replace us. That's what they meant, not that Jews are trying to take their place, rather that Jews are behind bringing in black and brown people to replace the whites. One AI generated social media meme showed some kind of ferry with a huge tunnel like dis boarding structure in the shape of Benjamin Netanyahu's face, with migrants charging through its wide open mouth onto the beach at Ceuta. But was this just naked and baseless antisemitism? Well, the background on all of this is interesting, so let's first take two big overviews before then zooming in on the conspiracy theory. First of all, recent and historical events between Spain, Morocco and Algeria are worth examining. In January, Spain's socialist Prime Minister announced what was essentially an amnesty for undocumented immigrants. This gave those who'd been in the country for at least five months prior to January 1st of this year a window from April 16th to June 30th to apply for citizenship. Then the day before that window was set to close. So on June 29, the Spanish Supreme Court separately ruled that migrants entering Ceuta by sea rather than by land could not be automatically returned, but should go through ordinary and slower immigration proceeds procedures to determine their fate. These legislative measures seem to have incentivized traffickers to misrepresent the situation to those desperate to cross over as meaning if you cross now, you'll be able to stay. Add to this a rash of social media posts on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, sharing maps and instructions on how to cross, and opportunistic marketplace links included in the comments and in the captions of some of these anonymous posts for things like inflation inflatables and flippers and waterproof bags to put your cell phone in. Both Moroccan and Spanish analysts have stated that these posts originated as part of an opportunistic campaign by traffickers, and boy, was it effective. But Spain and Morocco certainly do have beef. Some of this is about these exact enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla, which have been under either Portuguese or Spanish control since the 1400s before falling officially to Spain in 1668. Morocco sees them as final outposts of European colonialism and believes they should be returned. But there's more. A region known as Western Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, and Mauritania to the south and the east. Western Sahara became a Spanish colony in 1884, but when Spain relinquished control in 1975, it was eventually completely annexed in 1979 by Morocco, itself a former French colony. So it's colonizers all the way down, right? There is, however, a strong resistance movement against Moroccan rule, and that resistance in Western Sahara is actively supported and enabled by neighboring Algeria. While Spain is Morocco's largest trading partner, Spain also relies heavily on their enemy Algeria for natural gas. Spain also sees Morocco as a key border ally in terms of managing immigration and screening for any terrorists who may be on their way into mainland Europe. Across the Straits of Gibraltar. In 2022, Pedro Sanchez officially endorsed Moroccan rule over Western Sahara, which infuriated Algeria. This was after Spain had secretly allowed the leader of the Polisario resistance movement in Western Sahara to enter the country for life saving Covid medical treatment in 2021. I know it's a lot, right? So you have Western Sahara. It's been annexed by Morocco for a long time. The people there, their resistance movement is called the Polisario. They've been fighting for self determination and then Spain secretly lets their resistance leader into the country to get life Saving Covid treatment in 2021. The Moroccans discover this and they're angry about it. So when this happened, Moroccan border control at Ceuta was relaxed to allow as many as 10,000 migrants in somewhere between 8 and 10,000 in 2021. A kind of smaller dress rehearsal for what happened last week with Moroccan officials making it clear that this was in retaliation for what Spain had done. So what might have triggered the retaliation this time, which then combined with the traffickers misinformation campaign to create the perfect storm? Well, just 10 days before the Ceuta crisis, on July 30, Pedro Sanchez visited Algeria to renew natural gas contracts which had been suspended, you guessed it, because Spain endorsed Morocco's Western Sahara plan. To make matters worse, Algeria had cut off that natural gas pipeline route across Morocco to Spain and switched to a pipeline that just runs directly under the Mediterranean. This means Morocco will lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars once normal operations with Spain resume. So all of this makes for a compelling argument for why Morocco seems to have initially looked the other way while tens of thousands crossed into Ceuta. But there's another detail here that served as pivotal for some commentators. In 2020, Morocco signed onto the Abraham Accords, which seek to normalize relationships between Israel and and its Arab neighbors. The two countries now have trade, airline travel, cybersecurity and even military equipment partnerships. Policy analysts say that the first Trump administration overturned decades of US neutrality over the Western Sahara conflict to announce support for Moroccan control over the region as part of what was negotiated vis a vis the Israel Morocco normalization deal. Both deals were announced simultaneously by the White House and have been for the most part accepted by the UN with some caveats and were left in place under Biden. So it's easy to see how these details could mean that some would say what happened at the border with Ceuta last week was ordered by the US and Israel to punish Spain because Morocco is now allied with US and Israel. But to me that only makes sense if your worldview fails to take all of the complexities I just unpacked into account. There's already plenty of motivation here to not require an added on bad guy behind the scenes pulling the strings, especially when there's no evidence for that. The truth is that Spain does vocally oppose Israel's actions in Gaza and has refused to allow the use of Spanish military bases or airspace for the American and Israeli war against Iran. But it's a big leap to claim that that means they must have had a hand in the events at Ceuta. This is where our times get interesting, to say the very least, because American and European far right and far left commentators have found common cause in circulating various forms of what is really the great replacement theory in response to this crisis. This so called white genocide of Europe and America is framed as orchestrated by the Jews. So it's an easy move then for far right conspiracists to blame what happened in Ceuta on Israel. It's also easy to see how pro Palestine voices on the far left could posit Israel and Netanyahu as controlling Morocco to punish Spain. And given that many in both of these groups often see America as controlled by Israel, what if they also added their considerable weight to the pressure on Morocco? It's just hard to fathom why either country would need to do this and what it would accomplish. There's also the problem of there being no evidence for this claim, but that didn't stop prominent Spanish left wing politicians like Gabriel Rufian and Socar Puente and pundits like Carolina Alonso and Ana Alcalde, known as Gazan Barbie for her advocacy there, as well as celebrated actor Javier Bardem for suggesting this conspiracy theory publicly, while right wing Americans like Alex Jones and Candace Owens did the same. So too Americans like the somehow both right wing and left wing Anna Kasparian make it make sense and leftist political streamer Hassan Piker. Prominent English journalist Owen Jones also floated the idea, but acknowledged that there was no evidence for it to his credit. And he also dug into a lot of the context I've been sharing here. Although he said in his YouTube video titled Ceuta Did Us and Israel Engineer the Crisis? That the whole Western Sahara Algerian pipeline, Spanish diplomacy explanation, which I think is quite strong, seemed weak to him. I find that odd. And then he went into the potential for the conspiracy theory. So here we are. These events presented a fascinating window both into historical and current events in this part of the world, and also into how political spin and conspiracism move in quickly to control the narrative. I think sometimes we in the west on the left of center tend to boil things down to a quite limited view of a history involving Western colonizers, oppressed Middle Eastern and North African people, and all current conflicts having to do with a fairly simple moral calculus that identifies good guy underdogs fighting for freedom versus evil imperialists. Sometimes that's true, and those broad strokes paint a lucid picture of reality. But bear with me for a moment as I close here. Morocco and Algeria are both authoritarian regimes. Morocco has a more monarchical version of this in which tightly controlled elections happen, and yet no one can go against the palace even once they are in power. King Mohammed and the palace always have veto power. Algeria is more of a military backed authoritarian republic. They also have elections, but pre qualification rules and disqualification of certain forms of opposition severely limit genuine political competition. Neither country follows the kind of strict Sharia theocracy we see in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. But apostates from Islam in both countries do lose certain legal rights and those found guilty of persuading others to leave the faith can be jailed for up to five years in Algeria and three years in Morocco. Both have on the books and strictly enforce various types of blasphemy laws and laws against homosexuality. Overall, Algeria is the more repressive of the two, but they are the country who supports the right of Western Sahara to self determination. Meanwhile, Spain is the country supposedly being punished for its anti Israel support of the Palestinians, but the site of their punishment is one of their old colonial outposts that Morocco believes should by rights belong to them and as it sits on the North African coast, hard to argue with that. And Spain has chosen to support Morocco's control over Western Sahara. The Polisario resistance group in that region has a long history, like many similar factions in the Middle east and North Africa, of having once been Marxist, Leninist and Soviet aligned, armed and supported and then gradually becoming a bit more Islamist after the fall of the ussr. That's a common story, but independent analysts say that the Polisario is more of a nationalist movement that advocates for a democratic society free from Moroccan rule with Islam as the official religion. However, human rights and democracy groups like Freedom House point out that the Polisario does wield tight authoritarian single party control over political expression within its refugee camps camps in the territory. The Sahrawi group that predominantly makes up the Polisario is Sunni Muslim and follows the ultra conservative Maliki school of jurisprudence. Now the Maliki school strongly enforces the death penalty for homosexuality, blasphemy and apostasy, as well as the hudud punishments that mandate amputations, lashes and stonings for various crimes. But the Polisario's Sahrawi loyalists do also have surprisingly progressive attitudes toward gender equality, which stem from their traditional nomadic tribal customs. So you see the contradictions and the complexities. I'm sure conspiracy theories do make those simpler, but they only really add fuel to the fire. Like you, I'm sure I dream of a fair and peaceful world in which freedom, equality and human dignity can be enjoyed as protected rights for all people. I'm just not sure how we get there. Thanks for listening and I'll see you soon.
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