Haaretz correspondent Nathan Guttman reported last week from the United States that there is a rising chorus of voices there - from the right and the left - alleging that the war in Iraq is being promoted by Israeli special interests - that the war is a plot hatched by the Jews. The accusations ring familiar. They are reminiscent of the Arab claim that the attack on the Twin Towers was perpetrated by Mossad ("It is a fact that that day, the Jews didn't come to work") or the blood libel that alleges the Jews are spreading AIDS in Egypt.

What makes these accusations so interesting is the fact that they link anti-Semitic propaganda with anti-Israeli propaganda. True, not every criticism of Israel is unfounded and not everyone who denounces raids on refugee camps in Gaza is anti-Semitic.

Nevertheless, there are some noncoincidental parallels between the two types of propaganda. As an example, let us consider one marginal and little-known incident: Shimon Samuels, director of the Wiesenthal Center, recently approached Spain's education and culture minister, Pilar del Castillo Vera, with a request to take action against an art gallery in Malaga, as it had violated laws against racist incitement.

It seems the director of the ArtMalaga gallery had refused to stage an exhibition by Haifa artist Patricia Sasson, on the grounds that, "We absolutely refuse to work with any person related with Israel, as we are in total disaccord with its segregationist policy and we certainly hold an anti-Semitic attitude to any person related to that country."

Samuels urged the minister to strongly condemn this act of racism. It is not the first instance of a boycott against Israelis: a well-known shop in Oxford has adopted this policy against Israeli books, and there is a partial, albeit unofficial, academic boycott of Israeli research institutes - with encouragement from Israeli academics. However, this is the first case in which the term "anti-Semitism" was openly and unashamedly employed.

Even without the explicit use of the expression, there is something here that goes beyond criticism - in itself legitimate - of actions taken by the government of Israel. The boycott is not against the government, not even against its supporters, but against every Israeli and anyone related to Israel. It is a collective boycott that does not distinguish between an artist who supports the government's policy and an artist who opposes it.

Why is it that similar boycotts were not imposed for other disputed regions? Why weren't Serbian artists boycotted when the Serbians were committing war crimes against Muslims? Why are Chinese artists not boycotted as a reaction to the occupation of Tibet? Why are only Israelis boycotted? A boycott that views all Israelis as guilty smacks of biological anti-Semitism, according to which the Jew's fate is determined at birth. The pronouncement by the gallery director in Malaga, a city that has much Jewish history, is the manifestation of a disease we had thought was eradicated from the world.

But what does Spain have to do with anti-Semitism? There are almost no Jews there. We know, from bitter experience, that this fact alone is not enough to prevent the outbreak of a plague of anti-Semitism. It is a deep-rooted disease that does not require the stimulus of Jewish presence to break out. However, Jews are not the only thing missing in Spain - the number of believing Christians is also falling. Modern Spain is secular and permissive. It has among Europe's lowest natural growth rate (0.08 percent in 2001) - a figure that reflects the degree of secularity and the refusal to follow the dictates of the Church.

How, then, to explain the outburst in Malaga, and the other boycotts against "anyone related to Israel?" Although every such instance should not be seen as evidence of a pervasive Christian anti-Semitism, the incident in Malaga shows that even where there are no Jews or very many committed Christians, there still remains a worrisome residue of that age-old hatred. Even when the Cheshire cat of the Church has vanished, its anti-Semitic smile remains. In Spain and elsewhere.