Israel has responded on Monday almost immediately to the announcement of the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has done so through a message on the social network X of his Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, who has branded the Spanish Executive of “Anti -Semitic” and “Corrupt” and announced a prohibition of entry to the country of the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, and of the Minister of Youth and Children Rego
“The attempt of the corrupt government of Sánchez to distract the attention of serious corruption cases through an anti -Semitic and Antiisraelí campaign is evident,” says the minister in an message in his official X account. In the text he also accuses the Executive of “leading a hostile antiisraeli current with a wild rhetoric that gives off hatred.”
The diatribe of the head of Israeli diplomacy then links the Spanish government with “dark authoritarian regimes”, among which cites Iran and Venezuela, and recriminates a “lack of historical awareness about the crimes of Spain against the Jewish people, including those of the Inquisition, the forced conversions and the expulsion of Spain, the total ethnic cleaning of the Jews of Spain at the end of the fifteenth century.”
“The Israel Government, as the State of the Jewish people, has the obligation to stand up to institutionalized anti -Semitism and denounce it as it is, without capujos,” he adds.
Saar has announced in turn a prohibition of entry into Israeli territory for the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego. “It is evident that Díaz, leader of the Extremista adds, is taking advantage of the political weakness of Prime Minister Sánchez and dragging him, step by step, towards the application of his anti -sectionist and anti -Semitic vision.”
Shortly after the announcement of the Israeli veto, Díaz has responded to Israel defining as “a pride” that a “state that perpetrates a genocide” forbid the entrance to Minister Rego and her. In a statement released through the social network Bluesky, the second vice president added: “We will continue to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people, Mr. Netanyahu likes or not.”
The five ministers of Sumar released last day four a statement in which they announced that they would formally ask the government to sanctions against Israel, among which was the immediate approval by decree law of the embargo of weapons against that country that Sánchez has confirmed on Monday. They also urged to declare people non grata To Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and ultra -right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. Adsar urged the coalition of government to withdraw the Spanish ambassador to Tel Aviv, Ana María Salomón Pérez.
A tense relationship
The relationship of the Executive and President Sánchez himself with the Netanyahu government – conside by the most right -wing in the history of Israel – has been especially tense since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. That tension now threatens to aggravate.
-That include the approval by Royal Decree-Law of the embargo of Armas against Israel and the prohibition of entry into Spain of those who have participated in the “genocide” of Gaza- this Monday has been the first time in which Sanchez has openly accused that country of committing that crime in the offensive that on October 7 will turn two years.
On May 15, to admonish it for statements by the President of the Government during the Congress control session. At that headquarters, Sánchez had assured that his government did not trade “with a genocidal state”, in response to a question by ERC deputy Gabriel Rufián, although not explicitly mentioning Israel.
The disagreement between the Spanish Executive and the Netanyahu government had actually felt from the beginning of the Israeli invasion of Gaza that has so far caused more than 64,000 dead, most women and children. The tension between the two was already evident during the first and only visit, in November 2023, from Sánchez to Israel. The president then affirmed before a visibly contrary Netanyahu: “The entire world is impressed by the images we see daily in Gaza. The number of Palestinians dead in Gaza is really unbearable.”
The discomfort caused by the Israeli Executive by these statements, plus the subsequent visit of the President to the Egyptian side of the border crossing with Rafah’s Gaza, were the starting point of a crisis that has since been reflected since in successive encounters. Another of the tension peaks occurred when Spain recognized the state of Palestine, in May 2024, a recognition that Sanchez recalled in his institutional appearance on Monday.
Israel’s reaction was to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem providing services to the Palestinians, under explicit closing threat. A month later, Spain formally joined Israel for genocide in the UN International Court of Justice.
Another episode of tension happened following videos and images created by artificial intelligence that parodied Spain and members of the Government, including the president himself, disseminated in social networks from the official account of the then Foreign Minister and now Minister of Defense, Israel Katz. In photographic assemblies, flamenco dance with images of Palestinian militiamen in a statement released days later, Katz accused against the existence of the state of Israel. ”
The diatribes of members of the Israeli government have focused especially on the figure of the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, now sanctioned by Israel, to which, Katz then described as “ignorant person and full of hate”, for having used the expression “from the river to the sea.” According to the interpretation that predominates in Israel, that phrase is equivalent to calling to destroy that state, although, in reality, even Israeli pacifist groups use it to claim that all people living in that country are Palestinates, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship or Jewish citizens, have the same rights.
Minister Rego, whose father is Palestinian, has also been one of the most critical government ministers with Israel’s action in Gaza than the UN International Court of Justice considers a “possible genocide.” On August 28, the head of Youth and Childhood urged the organization of the Cycling Tour of Spain to exclude the Israeli Premier Tech Israeli team, whose participation in the race is generating. “A genocide is being perpetrated [en la Franja]then denounced.
Also the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, became the object of Israeli attacks in May 2024, when she became the first socialist member of the government to qualify “what is happening in Gaza” of “authentic genocide.” The Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, tried after placating the tension by avoiding using the same expression and limited himself to responding that it would be international justice that dictates whether Israel is committing it. “There is a demand for South Africa [en el Tribunal Internacional de Justicia de La Haya] to analyze and elucidate exactly that, ”he said.
