Luis Ayllón
Pedro Sánchez’s partner in government, Sumar, is stepping up its demands for Spain to adopt a radical and frontal criticism of Israel and refrain from participating in operations in the Red Sea to stop attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militias.
The march held yesterday in Madrid in support of Palestine and against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip brought together leaders of Sumar and Podemos, who took advantage of the occasion to insist on their approach to the conflict, which is more radical than that of the socialist sector of the Executive.
Thus, the MP for Sumar and spokesman for Izquierda Unida in Congress, Enrique Santiago, who is also secretary general of the Communist Party of Spain, in declarations to journalists, called for the government to take part in the genocide complaint filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Enrique Santiago considers that it would be a mistake for the government to take part in the military operation in the Red Sea, which, in his opinion, would only contribute to extending the conflict in the Middle East. On the contrary, he said he was in favour of all the efforts that the international community is being asked to make to create an alliance for intervention in the Red Sea being devoted to creating “a huge alliance” that community “to force Israel to an immediate ceasefire, to comply with UN resolutions and to recognise the Palestinian state”.
According to the leader of Sumar, “the only way to end the tension in the Red Sea is for Israel to immediately stop the genocide and occupation against the Palestinian people” and supporting the operation promoted by the United States against the Houthis is a clear “support for genocide and illegal occupation” by Israel.
For this reason, Enrique Santiago said that the government “has to move on from words to deeds”, which implies “appearing in the complaint against Israel that has already been presented at the International Court of Justice to immediately stop the military action”.
The Sumar sector maintains a more determined position than the socialist side, in support of the cause promoted by South Africa against Israel, and, in fact, a few days ago, the second vice-president and leader of the group, Yolanda Díaz, expressed her support for the initiative, in a meeting she held with the South African ambassador in Madrid, Sankie D. Mthembi-Mahanyele.
Last Friday, when asked whether this support for South Africa’s lawsuit was the position of the government or only part of it, he replied during a breakfast at the New Economy Forum, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, said that Spain respects the South African initiative and the work of the international tribunals. “We want to be respectful of the work of the ICJ, which is examining whether it has jurisdiction over South Africa’s claim, whether there is evidence to substantiate the claim and whether precautionary measures should be taken,” he explained.
Albares said that “the opinion of any state, for or against” should not interfere in this work, and added: “We will wait for it to make a decision”, and, when it does, “nobody should worry, Spain will speak, and it will speak clearly”.
Beyond the specific issue of the ICJ case, the Spanish government continues to express its desire for an end to Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip and is committed to the recognition of the Palestinian state, something on which it agrees with its Sumar partners.
Meanwhile, Albares himself is preparing to participate this Monday in a meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council, in which the 27 will discuss the launching of a purely European mission in the Red Sea. According to the minister at the same breakfast, the decision would have to be taken unanimously, and he said that “Spain is not going to oppose the emergence of a European operation”.
However, also on this point, Sánchez’s government had a response yesterday from Podemos, the purple party that has split from the Sumar parliamentary group in the Congress of Deputies. Its secretary general, Ione Belarra, demanded that the government block the European Union’s mission to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea, and claimed that Sánchez “is involving us in a war against Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, to side with the genocidaires”.
In addition, the former Social Rights Minister in the previous government also took the opportunity to demand that the government “publicly and legally” support the accusation of genocide against Israel at the ICJ and that it “immediately break off” diplomatic relations with that country.
During yesterday’s demonstration in Madrid, as in other parts of Spain, thousands of demonstrators called on the government to break diplomatic relations with Israel and impose an arms embargo. Among the demonstrators in the Spanish capital was the Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, who wrote on her social network account X that she attended the march “as one more activist” to demand “freedom for the Palestinian people and an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza”.
