The Chairman of the Granada Press Association threw what can only be described as an atomic wobbly when confronted by a heckler at an Hispano-Israeli conference in Granada. Things became simply surreal when a young woman burst into the hall waving a Palestinian flag, quickly followed by the Chairman whipping his belt off and brandishing it at her, promising to thrash the startled woman.

The situation was bad enough without the whole thing being captured on regional TV (Canal Sur), with welt-promising Chairman, Antonio Mora, advancing, belt on high, upon the cowering, flag bearing protester. Now, had the intended victim been a male, then it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the machismo overtones, mixed with, Franco-era treatment of women escaped nobody’s attention, not even the Chairman when he came to his senses.

Needless to say, womens associations went ballistic and political parties went into a frenzy of condemnation. It is readily apparent that he is just as surprised as everyone else by what happened: “I have no idea how I could have reacted in this way,” he explained.

The conference was hosted by the Granada Press Association and was to celebrate 25 years of Hispano-Israeli diplomatic relations.

The fact of the matter is that choosing to emphasise 25 years of unpopular co-operation with the State of Israeli is bound to go down badly here in Spain.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)