“The time has come to move from words to action”, warned Pedro Sánchez before the full Congress. And the president of the Spanish Government announced that next Tuesday, May 28, the Council of Ministers will approve the recognition of the State of Palestine by Spain. “A historical milestone”, which echoes the “majority feeling of the Spanish people”.
The commitment that Sánchez adopted six months ago on his first tour of the Middle East after the war between Hamas and Israel broke out, right at the Rafah crossing – the southern gate of the Gaza Strip – will be seen as follows accomplished after long months of preparations and negotiations in the region and in Europe. Spain, in fact, will finally take this step jointly with Norway and Ireland.
The head of the Executive assumed that this decision would have consequences with the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are aware of them and we are ready to take them on. Because the purpose of diplomacy is not to not bother anyone”, Sánchez alleged.
And, indeed, Israel’s reaction did not take long, while the diplomatic clash between Sánchez’s executives and Javier Milei’s Argentina remains open. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hebrew State, Israel Katz, ordered to call his ambassador in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon, for consultations. And he also summoned the Spanish ambassador to Israel, Ana María Salomón, to convey his protest. It adopted the same measures with Norway and Ireland.
Katz will show the three European ambassadors the brutal video recorded by Hamas militiamen themselves during their attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. But Sánchez already saw those images: Netanyahu included them in his appointment to Jerusalem, on November 23, to affirm its position.
The Spanish president warned yesterday, however, that in recent months everything has gone from bad to worse in Palestine. “Netanyahu has continued his destruction of Gaza”, he lamented. “Netanyahu continues to act recklessly, bombing hospitals, schools and homes, punishing more than a million innocent children with hunger, cold and terror,” he pointed out. “If something is clear to me, it is that Netanyahu does not have a peace project for Palestine”, he assured.
“Fighting the terrorist group Hamas is legitimate and necessary – he acknowledged -. But Netanyahu is generating so much pain, rancor and destruction in Gaza and the rest of Palestine that the two-state solution is really in danger of being viable.” The Israeli offensive, he warned, “will only succeed in perpetuating hatred and terrorism, and will worsen the security prospects for Israel and prevent a horizon of peace.”
“We cannot allow it. The countries that defend human rights and the rules-based international order are obliged to act”, he defended. “We will not allow the possibility of two states, the only fair and sustainable solution to this terrible conflict, to be destroyed by force,” he said.
“We know that our initiative will not return the lost time or lives to the Palestinians, but we trust that it will give them hope and dignity”, he justified.
And he defended the consistency of his decision: “It would be hypocritical to be outraged by Putin’s unjustified attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population, and look the other way when Netanyahu does the same against civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem “. “Our commitment to human rights – he concluded – cannot depend on the skin color or the religion of the victims”.
Sánchez insisted that the recognition of Palestine “does not go against anyone”. “It is not against the people of Israel, whom we respect and appreciate, nor against the Jews, an admirable people”, he stressed. “Nor is it in favor of Hamas, as Netanyahu’s propagandists and PP and Vox deputies say in a shameful attempt to take political advantage of it,” he criticized. And he quoted Núñez Feijóo to clarify whether he supports the recognition of Palestine or not: “Yes or no?”.
