Eduardo González/Luis Ayllón
The Government of Israel yesterday called its ambassador in Spain, Radica Radián-Gordon, for consultations, in protest against new statements by the Chief Executive, Pedro Sánchez, criticizing Israeli action in the Gaza Strip.
Israel thus leads an escalation in the open diplomatic crisis with Spain after last Friday statements by Sánchez at the Rafah border crossing caused the decision of the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen, to summon the ambassador. Spanish in Tel Aviv, Ana Solomon, to convey a “harsh reprimand.”
Yesterday, on the social network X, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Eli Cohen, pointed out that “after the outrageous words of the President of the Government of Spain, who repeats unfounded accusations,” he has decided to call the ambassador in Madrid for consultations so that return to Jerusalem.
The announcement of the call for consultations of the ambassador in Madrid comes shortly after it was announced that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had summoned the Spanish ambassador in Israel again to convey a new protest against Sánchez’s words, which the Israeli Executive considers “shameful.”
Specifically, Netanyahu referred to an interview given yesterday by Sánchez to Spanish Television in which he reiterated that the Spanish Government has condemned, “from the first moment”, the “despicable” attacks by Hamas and urged the terrorist group to release all hostages, but he specified, “with the same conviction,” that “Israel has to sustain its actions based on International Humanitarian Law” and that he had “frank doubts” about what it is doing.
Sánchez also declared that Spain’s relationship with Israel is “correct” and that “friendly countries also have to tell each other the real things.” Likewise, he defended the recognition of the State of Palestine and assured that Spain has not done so yet because it is waiting for the European Union to do so. However, “the situation has changed” with the current war between Israel and Hamas and, therefore, the time has come to address this issue “more than ever,” he warned.
This move by the Israeli authorities, unprecedented with a Western country, occurs a day after Eli Cohen held a meeting with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in an attempt by Spain to try to cool the diplomatic crisis.
The meeting with Cohen took place in Skopje, capital of North Macedonia, on the occasion of the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which Israel is a Mediterranean partner for the cooperation.
Albares declared to the press yesterday that he had once again expressed the solidarity of the Spanish Government with the victims and that “Israel has the right to defend itself from a terrorist attack, but within International Humanitarian Law and the protection of civilians.” “I also told him that our desire was, of course, to maintain the good relations we have with Israel,” added the minister, who announced that he had invited his Israeli colleague to visit Spain.
Last Friday, Eli Cohen summoned the Spanish ambassador in Tel Aviv, Ana Sálomon, after accusing Pedro Sánchez of “supporting terrorism” for stating, during his tour of Israel, Palestine and Egypt (in which he was received by Netanyahu in Jerusalem), that Israel’s response to the Hamas attack was being “disproportionate” and that Spain defends “a lasting ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. In response to this, José Manuel Albares summoned the Israeli ambassador in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon, to whom he conveyed that “the completely false words that the Government of Israel directed towards Pedro Sánchez are unacceptable to us and cannot occur again never”.
The attempt by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conclude the crisis, after summoning the two ambassadors, was blown up after Sánchez’s statements to TVE, issued almost coinciding with the attack perpetrated by two members of Hamas in a bus station in Jerusalem, which left three people dead and ten others injured, before being shot dead.
After the call for consultations by the Israeli ambassador, there has been no reaction from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
