Spain has announced sweeping measures against Israel, including a total arms embargo, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez saying the move is aimed at “stopping the genocide in Gaza” and “supporting the Palestinian population”.
“There is a difference between defending your country and bombing hospitals or starving innocent children,” Sanchez, one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, said in a speech posted from his official X account.
“This is an unjustifiable attack on the civilian population. Sixty thousand dead, two million displaced, half of them children. This is not self-defence … it is the extermination of a defenceless people.”
Central to the package, unveiled on Monday, is a royal decree law that will be approved by Spain’s cabinet and later ratified by parliament. The measure formalises what has been in effect since October 2023: a ban on the purchase and sale of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to Israel.
Spain will also prohibit ships carrying fuel for the Israeli army from docking at its ports, deny airspace access to aircraft transporting defence material, and bar entry to individuals “directly involved in genocide, human rights violations and war crimes” in Gaza, a restriction that could apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his government.
Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have been issued an arrest warrant for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), but several European leaders have faced criticism for refusing to execute the ICC warrant. The United States, the closest ally of Israel and its main military funder, has even slapped sanctions on ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.
Other steps include banning imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Sanchez pledging 10 million euros ($11.7m) in new funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and a total of 150 million euros ($176m) in humanitarian aid for Gaza by 2026.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned Spain’s measures as “anti-Semitic” and accused Sanchez’s socialist government of leading a “hostile anti-Israel line, with uncontrolled and hateful rhetoric”.
Israel’s leaders have often conflated criticism of its human rights violations and abuse against Palestinians with anti-Semitism. Similar charges were levelled against French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in August after they announced recognition of the Palestinian state and called for an end to the war in Gaza.
Israel also announced it would bar two Spanish ministers from entering the country.
Madrid swiftly rejected the allegations, summoning its ambassador in Israel back for consultations. Spain’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly rejects the false and slanderous accusations of antisemitism made by the Israeli government” and that it would “not be intimidated in its defence of peace, international law and human rights”.
“The measures relating to the inhumane situation in Gaza and the West Bank, announced today by the President of the Spanish Government, reflect the majority opinion of Spanish society and are adopted within the framework of its sovereignty and in line with its defence of peace, human rights and international law,” the ministry added.
Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024, joining a handful of European nations to do so.
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