Eduardo González
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday before the Congress that “Israel is a friendly country for Spain” but warned that the Palestinian people “are also a friendly people” that Spain supports “in its national aspiration to finally establish its own State” because “the horizon of hope is the Palestinian State.”
“Israel’s security is intertwined with the hope of the Palestinian people, and that horizon of hope is the Palestinian State,” said Albares during his appearance in the plenary session of Congress to report on the situation in Gaza and Israel, almost two months after the start of this war. After uttering these words, the minister’s speech was interrupted from the rostrum by two people waving a Palestinian flag and began shouting slogans in favor of the freedom of the Palestinian people, until they were finally expelled.
“We have condemned the Hamas terrorist attacks from the first minute, and I have conveyed this to my Israeli colleague, Eli Cohen,” continued Albares, who reiterated his “strongest condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel” – among whose victims mortals, he recalled, there are two Spaniards – and demanded the “immediate release of all the hostages.”
In any case, he warned, “the innocent victims of October 7 and the innocent Palestinian victims are all equally unbearable.” “The more than 1,200 Israeli victims of the terrorist attack are unbearable,” but so are “the thousands and thousands of Palestinian civilian victims, the displaced Gazans, the large number of homes and essential infrastructure destroyed and damaged,” he said. “We cannot allow the horror to continue for boys and girls, for Palestinian civilian families, who only want to live in peace,” he warned. “International Humanitarian Law requires that at all times a distinction be made between terrorist objectives and the civilian population,” he added.
Likewise, Albares once again recalled that Hamas is “a terrorist organization that does not represent the Palestinian people” and, therefore, “we cannot confuse them, no one should try to confuse them in this Chamber.” “Hamas has shown that it is only capable of creating pain and suffering” and generating “terror and suffering for so many innocent people” and, therefore, the international community must support the Palestinian Authority, which “holds the legitimate representation of the Palestinian people and is our partner for peace,” to assume control of the Gaza Strip, he continued.
In this context, he stated, “the recognition of the Palestinian State is a demand for justice, but it is also the best guarantee for the security and peace of Israel and the entire region,” as well as, in addition, “for the Mediterranean and Europe”. “The Palestinians need the creation of a viable and connected State, with its capital in East Jerusalem, in which they can finally live in peace and security,” he asserted. “Peace will only come through the security of Israel and Palestine and the two-state solution is the way,” he added.
In this work, he assured, “just as in the war in Ukraine,” Spain “works with its partners and allies and with international leadership to seek solutions to this challenge.” “We were the first country to oppose the cancellation of European aid to Palestine,” he said. “On the contrary, it had to be increased” and, “today the Council of Ministers has approved humanitarian aid of 25 million euros, reaching almost 50 million euros in aid for Palestine,” he announced. Likewise, “as presidency of the EU, we have promoted the involvement of the Union in the crisis”, as demonstrated, he assured, by the support of “all European heads of State and Government” for the peace conference proposed by Spain.
Indeed, yesterday the Council of Ministers authorized voluntary contributions, for a total amount of 25 million euros, to various international organizations related to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. The largest beneficiary, with ten million euros, is the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA). They are followed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with four million; the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with three million; and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with two million each.
In relation to the current diplomatic problem with the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Albares assured that “Israel is a friendly country for Spain, with which we maintain close bilateral relations.” Likewise, he assured that the Government will remain “vigilant and firm in the face of any outbreak of anti-Semitism and hatred, of any kind, towards any community.” “From the Government we will not tolerate Jewish communities living in fear,” he added.
“Spain supports the Israeli people working for peace in the region” but, he warned, “the Palestinian people” are also “a friendly people and we support them in their national aspiration to finally establish their own State.” “No more deaths of innocent Palestinians, no more deaths of innocent Israelis. Both need a horizon of peace. Let us work together for it,” he proclaimed.
In these circumstances, he continued, “the Government of Spain raises the flag of peace high”, with its “strongest condemnation of terrorism”, its defense “of International Law and International Humanitarian Law” and the search for “a solution policy consisting of the establishment of two States.” For all this, he warned, it is necessary for all Spanish political forces to unite around these objectives, because “what the Spanish expect of us is that we are united around peace, international law, the protection of civilians without distinguishing political parties or ideologies.” “It is not a question of ideologies, it is a question of humanity,” he warned.
González Pons (PP)
In his reply, the Popular Party deputy, Esteban González Pons, after denouncing that “Spain’s foreign policy is not a state policy by decision of its Government,” admitted that “the two-state solution is the only one that would ensure peace.” between Palestine and Israel and constitute an incentive to achieve a secure Israel and a viable Palestine”, but that solution “cannot be imposed at a time of tension like this nor can it be used as censure of one of the parties, unless we replace negotiations of peace for prejudice.” “It is a complex solution and cannot be imposed without Israel and much less against Israel,” he added.
Likewise, he accused the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, of having chosen “the worst day in Rafah to request the unilateral recognition of Palestine.” “We must convince Israel to contain its anger, to respect international legitimacy in its reaction, but what we pursue is the destruction of the infrastructure that Hamas uses to attack Israel, to prevent October 7 from happening again.” , he continued.
González Pons demanded that Albares not equate Israel and Hamas, because “one is a State as democratic as ours, the other is a murderous gang that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, that has never renounced terrorism to achieve its goals.” political objectives and that is in open rebellion against the Palestinian National Authority”, and denounced that Pedro Sánchez “has without evidence accused Israel of killing indiscriminately, without at the same time demanding the immediate dissolution of Hamas.”
Agustín Santos (Sumar)
On behalf of Sumar, a minority partner in the coalition government, his Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Agustín Santos Maraver, former ambassador of Spain to the UN, intervened in place of the general secretary of Podemos and former minister Ione Belarra, one of the most belligerent voices in the Sánchez’s previous cabinet against the Government’s policy towards Israel and who had expressly requested last week to be allowed to intervene.
During his speech, Santos recalled that UN resolutions “clearly establish the right of self-determination of Palestine since 1948” and, therefore, given the “chilling” situation that exists in the area, Spain must support the solution of the two States and “seek formulas to move towards a peace conference”, just as, he assured, Pedro Sánchez has done.
However, he lamented, the “far-right Government of Israel” has proposed, with “the annexation of Area C of the West Bank and the mass expulsion of Palestinians” from Gaza, to make “the State of Palestine unviable.” “Hamas responded with a ferocious attack with a political objective: to break the expectations of negotiation,” aligning itself with the agenda of the “far-right Government of Israel.” To solve the conflict, he concluded, it is necessary “the recognition of the Palestinian State, the review of arms sales, the review of Israel’s agreements with the EU and support for the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes in Gaza.”
