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Spain is one of Israel’s harshest critics in Gaza. A provocative video by Israel’s Foreign Minister Katz is further fueling the dispute between the two countries. Spain’s Foreign Minister is reacting.
Tel Aviv/Madrid – Following Spain’s planned recognition of a state of Palestine, the diplomatic conflict between the state on the Iberian peninsula and Israel On Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares described a video that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had previously shown on the Short message service X (formerly Twitter) as “scandalous” and “disgusting”.
The 18-second video shared by Katz shows footage of the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, while the video sequence is repeatedly interrupted by scenes of a couple dancing flamenco. In large letters, the video reads: “Hamas: Gracias España” (English: “Hamas: Thank you, Spain”).
Foreign Minister Albares: Spain will not allow itself to be “dissuaded from the path of peace”
Albares said in Brussels on Sunday: “Nobody will intimidate us, nor will we allow ourselves to be provoked by any means that would lead us astray from the path of peace.” Just on Saturday, the Spanish Foreign Minister had called on Israel to immediately end its military operation in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had previously ordered.
However, on Sunday another devastating Israeli air strike occurred on Rafah. According to aid organizations, numerous people were killed in a tent camp with civilian refugees. Arab states accuse Israel of deliberately targeting the refugees. Israel, on the other hand, described the attack as a “precision strike” against Hamas.
This is likely to add fuel to the fire in the already flaming dispute between Spain and Israel. And in view of the recent accusations by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles against Israel of committing “a true genocide” in Gaza, Robles is likely to see her position vindicated after Israel’s recent attack on Rafah.
Spain, Ireland and Norway demand that Israel recognize Palestine as a state
For months now, Spain has been clearly expressing a lack of understanding of Israel’s actions in Gaza and especially in Rafah. And Spain is one of the harshest critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The left-wing government under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid all arms exports to Israel in October.
Last Wednesday, Spain, together with Norway and Ireland, called on the Israeli state to recognise Palestine as a state. Although the majority of U.N.While the Palestinian member states now recognize Palestine as a state, this does not apply to Western nations such as the USA and Great Britain, as well as the majority of EU states, including Germany and France.
Recognition of Palestine as a state is seen as a significant incentive for the Palestinian side to make concessions in the event of peace negotiations. Critics of recognition, however, argue that Palestine lacks important criteria for such a step to be realized. For example, the border between Israel and Palestine is still disputed. The same applies to the political status of East Jerusalem.
Israel reacts with restrictions against Spain to demands for recognition of Palestine
As the German Press Agency (dpa) reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outraged at the joint demand of Ireland, Norway and SpainAccording to reports, Netanyahu summoned the ambassadors of the states to the Foreign Ministry to reprimand them. Israel’s Foreign Minister Katz also announced on Thursday that restrictions would be placed on the work of Spanish diplomats in Israel.
The Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Spanish Consulate General in East Jerusalem are therefore prohibited from offering their services to Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank until further notice, Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday at the Short message service X (formerly Twitter).
Israel’s measure was justified by a previous statement by the second vice president of Spain’s left-wing coalition government and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Diáz. The Labour Minister gave a speech last week in which she European Union to break off relations with Israel, used the phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”
Spanish Labour Minister explains use of Palestine slogan
This frequently made public demand by supporters of Palestine means that there should be a free Palestine in an area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – where the current territory of Israel is located. The formulation is seen as anti-Semitic because it expresses the Palestinian claim to sovereignty and denies Israel the right to exist.
As the Times of Israel on Sunday, Díaz told the EFE news agency that the slogan she used was not meant to be a call for the ethnic cleansing of Israel of Jews, as her critics claim. It was meant to be an endorsement that “Israel and Palestine must share a future of peace and prosperity,” Díaz stressed to EFE. “I am not anti-Semitic,” she added, responding to criticism from several Jewish groups in Spain and beyond. (fh)
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