Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez walks, in front of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, and Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, on the day of a meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Susana Vera
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday urged other members of the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, marking the latest effort by Spain to isolate the Jewish state over the past year.
“The European Commission must respond once and for all to the formal request made by two European countries to suspend the association agreement with Israel if it is found, as everything suggests, that human rights are being violated,” Sanchez said during an event in Barcelona.
Sanchez was referring to requests made by Spain and Ireland in February to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement, over concerns that Israel had breached the pact’s human rights clause.
The socialist leader also said his government opposed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to move out of harm’s way while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted military operations against Hezbollah terrorists embedded in nearby locations.
“Spain strongly condemns Netanyahu’s statement,” Sanchez said. “There will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL [UN Interim Force in Lebanon]. It is time for the international community to wake up and act decisively. The international order must be based on the rules that we all give ourselves, not on the strength of a few.”
España condena de forma rotunda la declaración de Netanyahu. No habrá retirada de la FINUL.
Es hora de que la comunidad internacional despierte. Que actúe con decisión.
El orden internacional debe asentarse en las normas que nos damos todos, no en la fuerza de unos pocos. pic.twitter.com/RNhmng5ROB
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 14, 2024
Israel has been fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the Iran-backed terrorist organization wields significant influence, in recent weeks after a year of nearly daily drone, missile, and rocket strikes by Hezbollah forces on northern Israeli communities. The relentless barrages from Hezbollah caused tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes, and the Israeli government has pledged to make the area safe for the displaced citizens to return.
Sanchez’s call for Europe to halt its free trade agreement with Israel came three days after the Spanish premier urged other countries to stop supplying weapons to the Jewish state.
“I believe it is urgent that, in light of everything that is happening in the Middle East, the international community stops exporting weapons to the government of Israel,” Sanchez told reporters after meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome.
“This is an appeal that I will make … to the entire international community,” the socialist leader added, saying it was important “not to contribute in one way or another to the escalation of violence and to the war and its expansion in Gaza, the West Bank or, in this case, to Lebanon.”
Sanchez’s comments came as Israel continued to conduct military operations against not only Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north but also the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza to the south. Hamas and Hezbollah, which openly seek Israel’s destruction, are both backed by Iran.
Under Sanchez, Spain has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel since Oct. 7 of last year, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza. The terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and abducted over 250 hostages in their rampage, leading Israel to respond with a military campaign aimed at freeing those taken captive and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain launched a diplomatic campaign to curb Israel’s military response. At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with one member of the cabinet from the far-left Podemos alliance falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”
More recently, Spanish officials said they would not allow ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports
In May, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”
Spain, like many other countries around the world, experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents targeting the Jewish community following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
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