The Diplomat
The Government of Israel threatened today to “harm those who harm it”, stressed that “the times of the Inquisition are over” and detailed that the order prohibiting the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to the Palestinians will come into force on June 1, within the framework of the Israeli response to Madrid’s decision to recognize the State of Palestine.
“The days of the Inquisition are over. Today, the Jewish people have a sovereign and independent State, and no one will force us to convert our religion or threaten our existence: those who harm us, we will harm them in return,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Katz has indicated in a message published on his account on the social network X that Israel “will not remain silent in the face of a Government that rewards terrorism and whose leaders, Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz, chant the anti-Semitic slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.'”, reports Europa Press.
“Those who reward Hamas and try to establish a Palestinian terrorist state will not have contact with the Palestinians,” he stated, before detailing that he has given orders “to send a diplomatic note to the Spanish Embassy in Israel prohibiting the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem conduct consular activities or provide consular services to residents of the Palestinian Authority.”
Spain, Ireland and Norway defend the measure
For their part, the Foreign Ministers of Spain, Ireland and Norway defended this Monday that recognizing the State of Palestine “is the right thing to do” at this time of the conflict in the Middle East and seeks a paradigm shift to achieve peace and advance in the two-state solution.
“We share that it is time to make the two-state solution effective to achieve what we all long for: peace in the Middle East,” defended the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, in a joint press conference from Brussels together with his Irish counterparts, Micheál Martin, and Norwegian counterparts, Espen Barth Eide.
The three European countries that will make the decision to recognize the Palestinian State effective at the same time have stressed that this step is “justice” and “the best guarantee of security” for Israel, apart from something “indispensable” to achieve peace in the region.
In the words of the Irish minister, the decision reflects the will to establish a new paradigm and bring the two-state solution closer. The current situation only distanced this scenario that the international community supports, he has pointed out, insisting that “without changing the approach, we will never achieve” the establishment of two states that coexist.
Martin has defended himself against those who have criticized the movement of Spain, Ireland and Norway for “imposing a result on the parties” or being “a reward for terror.” “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he responded, to emphasize that recognizing Israel and Palestine contributes to them living peacefully and normalizing relations, because it facilitates a “lasting and fair” agreement in which they do not play a role. neither terrorism nor occupation.”
According to his Norwegian colleague, recognition of Palestine now is the “right” decision and comes at “the right time.” Despite the cycle of violence that the Middle East is experiencing, Oslo understands that the step involves adapting the vision of the two States, since the process that began in 1993 has not borne fruit.
“We are now providing new software, it is a 2.0 for that vision, where the recognition of Palestine is just one of the different pieces of the great puzzle to bring peace to the Middle East”, he summarized.
In this sense, Barth Eide has encouraged other European countries to follow the example of Spain, Ireland and Norway by emphasizing that the message that this recognition sends is that the peace process “cannot get stuck” as happened in the 1990s. the 90s
