Spain, Ireland branch off EU, become 'Israel's' harshest critics
4 Min Read
A senior diplomatic source reveals that Spain and Ireland’s positions on Palestine were evident more than before.
-
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives for an EU Summit in Brussels, on Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that the murder of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza was “a tragic incident” and the fact that “this happens in wartime” sparked controversy even further around the world, with Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, calling him out for “supposed explanations” being “totally unacceptable and insufficient."
According to The Guardian, Sanchez noted that Spain awaits an account of the killings before deciding “what action we’ll take with regard to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu," which comes after Sanchez's latest announcement that Spain will recognize a Palestinian state by July.
Sanchez previously called the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza “truly unbearable” and stressed that "Israel’s" actions cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children” - both of which infuriated Netanyahu. He even added that he has “genuine doubts” about whether "Israel" is complying with international humanitarian law.
On Thursday, Sanchez asserted that "Israel's" actions may spark a debate in the EU on “whether we continue with this strategic relation or not."
Spain is not the sole country speaking up. In Ireland, the outgoing Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, described the massacres as “approaching revenge”, while the Foreign Minister, Micheal Martin, called it “disproportionate”.
Read next: Spanish, Irish PMs call for review of 'Israel's' EU trade obligations
Speaking to The Guardian, a senior diplomatic source revealed that Spain and Ireland’s positions on Palestine were evident more than before and noted that every time each of them spoke out, their voices encouraged others to join them.
This comes as the leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta released a joint statement on March 22 declaring that they would "recognize a Palestinian state."
'Waiting forever'?
Meanwhile, Spain’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, told reporters this week, “If we look at the medium and long term, if we don’t do something differently to how we have been acting in the last decade, we will see this spiral of violence once again. And in order to do that [something different] … we need a real and valuable Palestinian state... That’s why we are going to recognise the state of Palestine.”
He emphasized that recognizing Palestine as a state has been a key foreign policy commitment for Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE).
This language has been reiterated in the EU by its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, who said back in January, “Which are the other solutions they have in mind?”
“To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill them? Twenty-five thousand already in Gaza, 70% women and children. Certainly, the way of trying to destroy Hamas is not the way they are doing, because they are seeding the hate for generations.”
In an announcement that sent shockwaves last week, Ireland revealed that it intends to intervene in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against "Israel" to expand the definition of genocide to include blocking aid.
Ireland's Martin told The Guardian, “Clearly an entire population is being impacted here not just through the bombing but through starvation,” adding, “We’ve experienced famine, we know what it’s like in our psyche,” citing the 1840s disaster known as the Great Hunger.
Martin recalled his country's foreign policy tradition of seeking to ban certain weapons like cluster munitions and promote humanitarian corridors in Syria, Ethiopia, and other war zones, and expressed his belief that his country's foreign policy is to remain unchanged under the incoming PM Simon Harris, next week.
“We’ve worked with Simon Harris for the last four years in government, so we don’t anticipate any major issues around the content of foreign policy,” he said.
Ireland was the first EU state to call for Palestinian statehood in 1980.
Sanchez’s allies in the Podemos party accused "Israel" of pre-meditating a “genocide” against the Palestinians and urged to bring Netanyahu before the ICC to face war crimes charges.
“If we wait for the 27 member states [to recognize Palestine] we will be waiting forever,” one senior diplomat said.
