Above photo: Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares (C) speaks to the press before a meeting at the Berlaymont building in Brussels on May 16, 2024. Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP.
Spain says it does not want to contribute to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
Spain will not authorize ships carrying weapons for Israel to call at its ports, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on 17 May, because Spain does not “want to contribute to war” in Gaza.
Albares said the refusal was consistent with the government’s decision not to grant weapon export licenses to Israel since 7 October.
The announcement came after Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente confirmed in a social media post his country’s refusal to allow a ship carrying weapons to Israel to dock at the port of Cartagena in southeast Spain.
The Marian Danica, which was carrying approximately 27 tons of explosive materials from the Indian city of Madras to Israel, requested permission to arrive in Cartagena on 21 May, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.
The Spanish government does not wish to contribute to Israel’s ongoing war and siege on Gaza, which is widely viewed as a genocide, in part due to pressure from the far left parliamentary block, Sumar, a minority partner in Spain’s ruling socialist coalition.
Israeli political leaders have expressed their desire to eradicate Gaza and its population of 2.3 million people to make way for Jewish settlement of the enclave.
“There are no half measures,” Finance Minister Smotrich said on 30 April, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
“Rafah, Deir Al-Balah, Nuseirat – total annihilation. ‘You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven’ – there’s no place under heaven.”
Rafah is a city in southern Gaza on the Egypt border, which Israel is currently invading and bombing, further displacing hundreds of thousands already living in tents. Deir Al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp are areas in central Gaza.
Since the start of the war, Israeli military operations have killed more than 35,000 people and injured some 79,000, according to the latest statistics issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.