More Madrid forces the Assembly to remember the Palestinian victims of the Israeli war

With the parliamentarians of PP and Vox seated, but scrupulously maintaining the requested silence, and those of Más Madrid and PSOE standing, the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly has made an explicit remembrance of all the victims of the Israeli war.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
12 October 2023 Thursday 16:25
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More Madrid forces the Assembly to remember the Palestinian victims of the Israeli war

With the parliamentarians of PP and Vox seated, but scrupulously maintaining the requested silence, and those of Más Madrid and PSOE standing, the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly has made an explicit remembrance of all the victims of the Israeli war. Both those derived from the Hamas terrorist attacks last Saturday and those who have suffered the bombing of Palestine ordered by the Jewish country as revenge.

The image was not planned on the agenda, since the only minute of silence in this regard was the one that all parties agreed to carry out in extremis for the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. However, the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Mónica García, decided to use half of her question time to the Madrid Government to force "the hypocritical right that prioritizes victims" to also remember the Palestinian victims of the Middle East conflict.

"Say here and now that the life of a Palestinian child is worth less than the life of an Israeli child. Say that your right to defend a country is based on bombing schools and colleges and hospitals. That it is the law of an eye for an eye ", García expressed before inviting all parliamentarians to participate in the symbolic minute of silence to which, despite initial doubts, the PSOE parliamentarians have joined.

Something that the PP spokesperson, Carlos Díaz-Pache, has harshly reproached: "For you it seems that everything is terrorism except mass terrorism, everything is machismo except systematic rapes and murders of women and all crimes are hate crimes. "except for the deepest anti-Semitism, it is a shame. Mr. Lobato, Mrs. García: your interventions on Israel are increasingly unbearable. The positions of some of your parties are shameful."

The PSOE has also been tough. But both with the left and right formations. Its spokesperson, Juan Lobato, has first accused the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of using the "death" and "suffering of the thousands of people" affected by the Hamas attack to "make national politics and confront with this the Spanish and confront them". And, immediately afterwards, he accused Más Madrid of "meanness" for trying to impose its "supposed moral superiority to try to show that the rest of us are less supportive than them." "I repudiate the meanness of some and others, it is regrettable," Lobato concluded.

With this initiative, lukewarmly censured by the president of the Chamber, Enrique Ossorio, who recalled that "the minutes of silence are unanimously agreed upon by the spokespersons and therefore now there cannot be any minute of silence", Más Madrid has shown its rejection of the refusal of all parliamentary spokespersons to support their formal initiative to remember "all the victims" of the conflict.

The attack by the terrorist group entered the Madrid Assembly on Monday in the Board of Spokespersons and led to a moment of tension between Más Madrid and Vox in the subsequent press conference.

It was the leader of Vox in the Chamber, Rocío Monasterio, who explained that her group had proposed a minute of silence for the victims of the Hamas attack and accused her counterpart from Más Madrid, Mónica García, of blocking it.

Monasterio harshly criticized García and Sumar, the coalition in which he is a member at the national level, going so far as to describe them as "scum" when he understood that they defended the terrorists.

Minutes later, it was García who took the floor and explained, after condemning the Hamas attack, that his group had not opposed the minute of silence, but had asked for it to be extended and also recognize "all civilian victims," ​​in reference to those killed on Palestinian soil after Israel's retaliation.

After them, the PSOE spokesperson in the Assembly, Juan Lobato, specified that they did agree on Vox's minute of silence and demanded that the crisis in Israel be removed from the regional board, a "crossword of 200 letters" of which "only has a". He claimed not to move from the position defended by the European Union and the Government of Spain. For his part, the PP member, Carlos Díaz-Pache, accused García of "equidistance" and of "equating victims and executioners."

Faced with this clash, the president of the Chamber of Vallecas, Enrique Ossorio, urged the spokespersons to seek a consensus that would allow the initiative to move forward, a consensus that was finally announced on Thursday morning.

The minute of silence was joined hours later by a proposed institutional declaration from Vox and another from Más Madrid, defending their positions. "We do not understand how there is no agreement on the part of the two sides. The position of the PSOE is to condemn the attacks and show solidarity with the civilians who are suffering. We cannot put ourselves in profile," they urged from the socialist ranks, while from More Madrid insisted that for them there were no "first and second class victims."

For her part, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has shown her support for Israel since Saturday, which she moved, among others, by illuminating the headquarters of the regional Executive, the Real Casa de Correos, with the colors of her flag.

Ayuso stressed on Tuesday that the country led by Benjamin Netanyahu is "a brother people" for Spain and indicated that "no one can be exempt from terrorism." These statements were made from the Madrid synagogue before dozens of attendees, after the demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in memory of the victims of the attack.

"No one can deny you the right to be and exist, to the promised land that is your home and the home of many who are not Jews but your democracy welcomes," he said.

Along these lines, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, Miguel Ángel García, showed on Wednesday his "concern" about the "equidistance" of some left-wing parties with the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel as well as about "the lack of forcefulness" when condemning him.