After the tour of the Middle East with which he started his new mandate, and which culminated with the Rafah crossing, opening the door for Spain to recognize the State of Palestine even unilaterally if the EU delays the decision, Pedro Sánchez has insisted on questioning the devastating reaction of Israel in the Gaza Strip, after the Hamas terrorist attacks suffered on October 7: "I have sincere doubts that they are complying with international humanitarian law," he acknowledged this Thursday in an interview on TVE, the first after his new investiture.
Despite the diplomatic clash registered with the Jewish State, given the words that the Spanish president and the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, spoke at the Rafah crossing last week, Sánchez has warned that the state of Spain's diplomatic relations with Israel is “correct.” “Friendly countries also have to tell each other the truth,” he justified.
Sánchez has assured that from the first moment he has condemned the terrorist attacks by Hamas. “What Hamas did in Israel is absolutely despicable, execrable,” he stressed. And he recalled that in his meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Beniamin Netanyahu, last week in Jerusalem, “I had to watch Hamas attacks and crimes in Israel for 20 minutes, and it was very sad and very hard to see the images that put the Israeli government on those attacks.” He has thus reiterated his “condemnation and rejection” of these attacks by the Islamist organization that governs Gaza, and his demand that it release all the hostages it has in its hands, “without any conditions and immediately.”
“But with the same conviction, we also have to tell Israel that it has to sustain its actions based on international humanitarian law. And with the images we are seeing, and the growing number, especially of boys and girls, who are dying, I have sincere doubts that they are complying with this international humanitarian law,” Sánchez warned.
The Spanish president has insisted that "it is evident that we have to propose a political solution to end this crisis." That solution, in his opinion, “passes through the recognition of the Palestinian State.” Sánchez has pointed out that there is a lot of talk about “the two-state solution”, but in reality, “it is the solution of one State, because the other is already recognized by the international community”, in reference to Israel.
In 2014, the Congress of Deputies already approved a non-law proposal, unanimously, which demanded that the Government of Spain recognize the Palestinian State. But Sánchez has alleged that that same resolution linked this recognition to other European countries joining in, so that they "took the step at the same time as Spain." Sánchez recalled that more than 140 countries around the world have already recognized the Palestinian State, including European countries such as Hungary and Sweden, "which did so unilaterally many years ago."
“The situation has changed,” Sánchez warned, to justify his position, because he assured that the Arab countries demand “facts,” and not more peace agreements that are later broken. “We have to sit down to reach an agreement on facts, and those facts are that the West, that Europe, recognizes the Palestinian State,” he insisted that the Arab countries demand. “And I think they are right, because during all these years we have seen how Israel, systematically, has been occupying Palestinian territory, in the West Bank. And now we see what is happening in Gaza. Therefore, we have to address that debate,” he defended.
Sánchez has assured that it is “in the interest of Europe” to address this issue. “First, out of a moral conviction, because what we are seeing in Gaza is not acceptable. And what is going to be done in Gaza after this spiral of violence ends is not acceptable either. But secondly, because it is also in Europe's geopolitical interest to stabilize a region that, if peace is not achieved, we could be subjected to a crisis that expands to Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, and destabilizes a region so important for us as is the Mediterranean”, he argued. “Can Europe really allow itself to have two open war fronts, one in Ukraine and the other in the Middle East? Politics and diplomatic channels have to prevail,” she claimed.
