In a blistering five-minute video message broadcast on social media, Podemos party leader and Minister of Social Rights in the Sanchez government, Ione Belarra denounced Netanyahu’s government in Israel for carrying out a “planned genocide,” “collective punishment” and “apartheid” against the Palestinians in Gaza, and encouraged and enabled by the U.S. and the EU. Speaking on behalf of her party, which is a coalition partner in the current Spanish government, Belarra demanded four concrete measures, to be immediately adopted:
• that a humanitarian corridor be opened, by which civilians could leave Gaza to safety and by which emergency aid could enter;
• that the Socialist Party join with Podemos in filing a formal petition, on behalf of the Spanish government, for the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes investigation into Netanyahu as well as Hamas;
• that the EU stop “blindly following” the U.S., which is responding to the “loss of its hegemony” with belligerence, in both Israel and Ukraine, and instead recognize that Israeli actions against Gaza are war crimes and impose an arms embargo on Israel; and
• that the EU deploy its diplomatic efforts, contacting all actors and, in particular, “the nations of the Global South,” so as to promote a negotiated solution to the conflict, because only a just, lasting and stable solution can secure the lives of all people on both sides.
She called, in concluding, for all citizens of Spain and other European countries to exercise their right to freedom of speech, and demonstrate in the streets for an end to the blockade and occupation of Palestine, and to the apartheid against it.
The Israeli Embassy protested, charging that “certain members” of the Spanish government were supporting Hamas, and their statements put the lives of the Jewish communities in Spain at risk from anti-Semites. Israel, it stated, calls on Prime Minister Sanchez to denounce and categorically condemn such statements.
Instead, Spain’s Foreign Ministry responded that “the Government of Spain categorically rejects the falsehoods expressed in the communiqué of the Embassy of Israel about some of its members and does not accept unfounded insinuations….” In a democracy such as Spain, “any political leader can freely express positions as a representative of a political party.”
Furthermore, it stated, “the position of the Government of Spain as a whole,” is that it categorically condemns the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas and recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself “within the limits set by International Law and International Humanitarian Law.”
It then specified: “The Government as a whole has repeatedly expressed the need to distinguish the Palestinian population from the Hamas terrorist group, to protect the civilian population of Gaza and the imperative need to maintain the basic supplies indispensable for the well-being of that population.
“The Government as a whole reiterates that the only viable solution to achieve a situation of peace and stability in the region is the solution of two States coexisting in peace and security, as endorsed by the United Nations.”
