Israel imposes restrictions on Spanish diplomats

Two days after Spain announced its intention to recognize the State of Palestine, Israel imposed restrictions on the work of Spanish diplomats in the country. Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced yesterday that the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Spanish Consulate General in East Jerusalem will be prevented in the future from providing their services to Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The minister also justified the measure with a statement by the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, which he described as anti-Semitic. In a speech shared on Channel X, the politician eventually said: “Palestine will be liberated from the river to the sea.”

The sentence means that there must be a free Palestine in the area extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel is now located. Yolanda Díaz is the second deputy prime minister in the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez. It belongs to the leftist Somar Alliance, the junior coalition partner of Sánchez's ruling Socialists.

Spain, Ireland and Norway announced on Wednesday that they will recognize Palestine as a separate state at the end of next May. Israel reacted angrily and summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Ireland, as well as the Norwegian representative to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were also shown a video of the brutal arrest of the army scouts on October 7 by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas movement.

Ireland is angry

On Friday, Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin expressed his anger at the treatment received by the Irish ambassador. She was expected to be summoned to the Foreign Ministry, but the fact that videos of her from October 7 were shown in front of Israeli media television cameras is “completely unacceptable.”

He added: “I will contact the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly, if necessary, in writing,” according to what was reported by the British news agency “PA.” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell defended Spain, Ireland and Norway's recognition of Palestine. Borrell said in Madrid that this “is not a gift to Hamas, on the contrary.”