<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Spanish government has “strongly condemned the Israeli government’s approval of 22 new settlements in the West Bank.”</strong></h4> “The settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, undermine the viability of the two-state solution, and are a threat to peace,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday. The government also expressed “its deepest dismay at the intensification of the military offensive in the West Bank—including operations in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nurshams refugee camps—the demolitions, the increasing settler violence, and the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians, which constitute violations of international humanitarian law.” “Peace in the region requires the realization of a sovereign Palestinian state, comprising Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the statement concludes. Last Sunday, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called on the EU to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel, impose an arms embargo on that country, and adopt individual sanctions against individuals who are impeding the two-state solution. "We are very close to making the two-state solution unviable due to Israel's illegal colonization movements," Albares warned before the start of the Madrid Ministerial Meeting + for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, held at the ministerial headquarters in the Santa Cruz Palace and attended by the European and Arab countries that have led this initiative, along with Spain. Therefore, Albares urged "a review of the national list of individual sanctions that each of us has, and also the European Union, to ensure that we do not allow those who do not want the two-state solution, which we all know is the definitive solution for achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, to succeed." Regarding who could be sanctioned and whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be among them, he responded: "We are not ruling out anyone." In any case, he specified, it should include "all those who do not believe in the two-state solution and furthermore make it impossible with their actions."
