The government of Mariano Rajoy threatened to recognize the Palestinian State in order to stop the sympathies that Israel showed towards the Catalan independence process and thus cut off the dreaded option of a major State promising the recognition of an independent Catalonia unilaterally.
The episode was treated discreetly by both parties and is part of the disagreements between Madrid and Tel-Aviv, cyclical since the late establishment of diplomatic relations in 1986 (Spain was the only member of the EU that did not recognize the State of ‘Israel).
The threat to recognize Palestine was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, José Manuel García-Margallo, during a visit to Israel, as he recalls in his book Memorias heterodoxas. Spanish diplomatic sources have confirmed to La Vanguardia this management, registered in a stage of discomfort in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the complacency and gestures that Israel showed towards the process.
García-Margallo remembers that in those months he made numerous trips and deals all over the world, but he singles out three for their “dangerousness” for Spain’s interests: the Baltic countries, Scotland and Israel. In each place, the argument was different but the objective was the same: to prevent any country from encouraging the process, with the promise of recognition.
In the Baltic countries, the message was that if they were “comprehensive” with the unilateral path, Spain would ask for the lifting of sanctions on Russia (“which they – the Baltics – were so interested in”). The then Scottish Prime Minister, Alex Salmond, was told in the course of “a long interview” that if they continued to show support for independence, “I would begin to say that Spain would veto the hypothetical access of an independent Scotland to the EU”. Finally, the third target was Israel. “I made the third important visit to Israel, where I explained with absolute clarity that, if they bothered us about this, we would recognize Palestine.” A diaphanous phrase that appears on page 414 of these heterodox Memoirs.
Even today, the last government that has received a president of the Generalitat is that of Israel. It was 2013, with Artur Mas as president, the year in which the pro-independence bias closed the doors to visits that had acquired substance in the time of Jordi Pujol. Since 2013, no State has received a Catalan leader in the high ranks of prime minister or president.
It was precisely Jordi Pujol who, since the 1980s, promoted special relations with Israel, a model to follow for CiU sectors, dazzled by the economic and political success of the Jews who founded the State of Israel in an environment very hostile. The parallels were tempting…
Spanish diplomatic sources point out that García-Margallo’s warning had an apparent effect. However, Israel retained a deliberate eagerness to embarrass Spain on the matter, as evidenced by the fact that it was one of the democratic states that was slowest to express public support for Spain’s territorial integrity after the unilateral declaration of independence in 2017. “It took weeks, weeks,” recalls a diplomatic source.
