“What Israel is doing is not self-defense,” but “the extermination of a defenseless people and a violation of humanitarian law.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced new sanctions to curb the “genocide” taking place in Gaza. This new step (not a change of direction, given Spain’s role in condemning Israel’s actions) is both narratively significant — the Spanish government now speaks openly of “genocide” — and practically significant, with the head of government announcing the imminent adoption of a decree formalizing what has long been in practice: a complete embargo on the purchase and sale of weapons with Israel. In addition, the socialist leader has announced eight other measures.
Sánchez's intervention began by recalling the "suffering" of the Jewish people, the Holocaust and the "persecutions" against them throughout history, also reiterating the condemnation of Hamas. But "with the same conviction, the Spanish government believes that it is one thing to defend your country and another, quite different, to bomb hospitals and starve innocent children. This" — he added during a press conference in Moncloa, the parliament in Madrid — "is an unjustifiable attack against the civilian population, which the United Nations rapporteur defines as genocide. 60 thousand dead, two million displaced from their homes, half of whom are children."
He then criticized the hesitation of some European countries, such as Italy, which have not yet imposed an arms embargo or expressed their support for recognizing the state of Palestine, a proposal that Madrid has been the first in Europe to embrace: "Great powers end up trapped between indifference and complicity."
