The escalation of violence in the Middle East, after the attacks by Hamas in Israel and the reaction of the Hebrew State, which threatens to cause a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, generated turbulence in the heart of the European Union and also breaking into the political debate in Spain, where the mystery of the investiture still remains unresolved.
Pedro Sánchez maintains a position of firm condemnation of the terrorist attacks by Hamas, and asks that Israel not violate international humanitarian law in Gaza. And yesterday he defended the recognition of the Palestinian State as “the only way to definitively resolve the conflict” with Israel.
But the criticism of the purple sector of the Spanish Government, which calls for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to be “stopped” and brought to the International Criminal Court for “genocide” against the Palestinian people, provoked a strong reaction yesterday from Israel His embassy in Madrid issued a harsh statement calling on Sánchez to “denounce and unequivocally condemn the shameful statements” he attributes to “some members of the Spanish Government”.
“It is deeply worrying that, at a time when Israel is mourning the loss of innocent lives in the barbaric attack by Hamas (…), some elements within the Spanish Government have chosen to align themselves with this terrorism in the way of the Islamic State”, denounces the Israeli statement.
“Absolutely immoral” statements, the embassy warns, which “endanger the safety of the Jewish communities in Spain and expose them to anti-Semitic attacks”.
The Spanish Government’s reaction was just as forceful, through a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to “categorically reject the falsehoods expressed” by the Israeli embassy about some of its members, and warned that “it does not accept insinuations unfounded about them”. “Any political leader can freely express positions as a representative of a political party in a full democracy such as Spain,” warns Exteriors.
The truth is that no member of the Spanish Government is “aligned” with Hamas and all of them, including the ministers and leaders of Podemos, Ione Belarra, and IU, Alberto Garzón, condemned the terrorist attacks on the Israeli civilian population, although they do demand respect for human rights, the application of United Nations agreements and the cessation of Israel’s attacks on the population of Gaza, which they describe as “genocide”.
Sánchez went ahead, according to Moncloa, to establish a firm position, inside and outside the Spanish borders, following the resurgence of the conflict in the Middle East. A position he already defended on Saturday at a PSOE rally and with the statement he signed as president of the Socialist International.
As acting head of the Spanish Executive and acting president of the EU Council, yesterday he defended the recognition of the Palestinian State as “the only way to definitively resolve the conflict”. And he did it in front of the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the presidents of the Council and the Commission, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, at the summit in Tirana.
In line with the common position that the 27 EU member states adopted on Sunday, and in the same sense that the European Council will express itself today. With all the pieces aligned, therefore, to add strength and avoid cracks. Also in the bosom of the coalition Executive.
“The position of the whole in relation to the terrorist attacks by Hamas is clear: categorical condemnation, demand for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself within international humanitarian law,” says the statement of Foreign
“The Government as a whole – he remarks – has repeatedly expressed the need to distinguish the Palestinian population from the terrorist group Hamas, to protect the civilian population of Gaza and the imperative need to maintain the basic supplies essential for the well-being of this population”.
And in line with the position expressed by Sánchez yesterday in Tirana, the statement indicates that “the Government as a whole reiterates that the only viable solution to reach a situation of peace and stability in the region is the solution of two states that coexist in peace and security”.
“The only way to definitively resolve the conflict is through the recognition of the two states, so that they can coexist in peace and security,” Sánchez had warned at the Tirana summit. “Now we must work to prevent an escalation of violence in the region and redouble all our efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.”
Sánchez’s position is framed in the same UN coordinates. And those that Congress approved unanimously in Spain in 2014 allege Moncloa. But the negotiation process in which the leader of the PSOE is immersed, to try to articulate a new investiture majority, polarizes the political scene in Spain and also sharpens the offensive of the right to try to prevent his re-election.
From Sumar, an organization led by vice-president Yolanda Díaz, the recognition of the Palestinian State was incorporated into the negotiation of the government agreement. As explained yesterday by its spokesman, Ernest Urtasun, who again condemned the attacks by Hamas, this recognition “must be done unilaterally, unconditionally and urgently as an essential contribution to peace”.
Urtasun was thus referring to the need for Spain to recognize the Palestinian State on an individual basis outside the criteria of the 27, as Sweden or Greece have already done, given that waiting for the unanimity of the EU is postponing it sine die. And he recalled that this recognition had already been approved in Congress with almost unanimous support from all the groups – two MPs from the PP voted against it and one abstained – in November 2014.
The Popular Party and Vox agreed yesterday to denounce the Sánchez Government coalition, the current one with Unides Podem and the one that seeks to re-edit with Sumar, for an alleged collusion with Hamas from the space to the left of the PSOE. The spokesperson of the PP, Borja Sémper, warned of the “weakness” that Spain projects on the international stage, since the Executive is “broken” in the face of the conflict in the Middle East. Sumar, criticized Sémper, “is not even able to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization”. As already happened with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the attack by Hamas also generates “division in the heart of Spain”, as he highlighted.
And the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, accused Sánchez of having “admiration for Hamas terrorism placed within the Council of Ministers”.
