Spain’s Foreign Ministry summoned its ambassador in Tel Aviv on Monday for consultations, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused the Spanish government of being “antisemitic” following its announcement that it would ban Israel-bound ships and aircraft.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced earlier that Spain will increase pressure on Israel by banning Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from calling at Spanish ports or entering Spanish airspace.
Spain will also increase aid to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and will impose an embargo on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to the prime minister.
An Israeli official confirmed to Haaretz that Spain is calling back its ambassador to Tel Aviv following the remarks made by Israel’s foreign minister.
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Besides formalizing an arms embargo, which the Spanish government says has been de facto in effect since October 2023, Spain will ban ships carrying fuel for Israel’s armed forces from passing through Spanish ports, and increase its humanitarian aid toward Gaza in 2026 to reach 150 million euros ($176 million), he said. The measures would need to be approved in Parliament.
“We know that all these measures will not be enough to stop the invasion or the war crimes, but we hope that they will serve to add pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to alleviate some of the suffering that the Palestinian population is enduring,” Sánchez said in a public address aired on local TV.
Haaretz Weekly’Gaza started as a legitimate war of self-defense. It became merciless, cruel vengeance’: This Israeli ex-foreign minister speaks his mind
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Spain will also ban anyone who has participated directly in what Sánchez qualified as “genocide” from entering the country.
“This is not self-defense, it’s not even an attack – it’s the extermination of a defenseless people. It is a violation of all humanitarian laws, and despite that, the international community is failing to stop this tragedy,” Sánchez said.
Israel responded by banning Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz and Youth Minister Sira Rego, both from far-left junior coalition partner Sumar, from entering Israel.
Minister of Foreign Affairs @gidonsaar:
The Government of Spain is leading a hostile anti-Israeli line, with wild rhetoric dripping with hatred.
The attempt by the corrupt Sánchez administration to divert attention from severe corruption scandals through a continuous anti-Israel
Sa’ar said in a statement on Monday that Sánchez was trying to divert public attention from his domestic corruption scandals and qualified his measures as “antisemitic”.
“The Government of Spain is leading a hostile anti-Israeli line, with wild rhetoric dripping with hatred. The attempt by the corrupt Sánchez administration to divert attention from severe corruption scandals through a continuous anti-Israel and antisemitic attack is transparent,” Sa’ar wrote in a statement.
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Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar during a press conference, on Sunday. Credit: Ida Marie Odgaard/AFP
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar during a press conference, on Sunday. Credit: Ida Marie Odgaard/AFP
Sa’ar said ministers Yolanda Díaz and Sira Rego would be prohibited from entering Israel because they had made statements calling Israel a “genocidal state” and supported efforts to sanction or boycott Israel, listing said statements dating back to October 2023.
In his statement, Israel’s foreign minister mentioned that “Also striking is the lack of historical awareness of Spain’s crimes against the Jewish people, including the crimes of the Inquisition, from forced conversions to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain – the complete ethnic cleansing of Jews from Spain at the end of the 15th century,” and blamed Spain of “deliberately and crudely harming Israel’s diplomatic relations with Western European countries.”
Israel’s foreign minister also downplayed the effect the Spanish government’s ban would have on Israel. “If they want to hold or halt defense connections with Israel,” Sa’ar told reporters, “who do you think will lose from that? We don’t need Spain to protect the land of Israel.”