Israel prohibits Spanish consulate from offering services to West Bank Palestinians

Paul Godfrey
·2 min read
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UPI
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz (L) on Friday said that Israel would sever ties between its Spanish consulate and Palestinians in response to a senior Spanish minister's use of the phrase "From the river to the sea." File Pool Photo by Abir Sultan/UPI

May 24 (UPI) -- Israel announced Friday it had terminated Spain's diplomatic and consular links with Palestinians in response to a senior Spanish minister's use of the phrase "From the river to the sea," amid an escalating row over Madrid's decision to recognize Palestine as a state.

In a social media post, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had decided to "sever the connection between Spain's representation in Israel and the Palestinians and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank."

Katz said he had been forced to take the step due to Spain's recognition of a Palestinian state and the "anti-Semitic call by Spanish Labor and Economy Minister Yolanda Diaz to 'liberate Palestine from the river to the sea'," in an online address.

Slamming Diaz as "ignorant and hate-filled," Katz urged her to examine Spain's more than 700-year experience of Islamic rule from 711 to 1492 to truly understand the motivation and goals of "radical Islam."

"We will continue pressuring, from our position in the government, to defend human rights and put an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people," the leftist leader of the Spanish government's Unite Movement coalition partner said Wednesday in a video explaining the decision to recognize Palestine.

"We live in a moment where doing the minimum is, at the same time, heroic and insufficient. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," she said in the footage posted on X.

Israel's ambassador to Spain, whom Katz is recalling to Jerusalem over Spain's decision, condemned Diaz's comments as a "clear call for the elimination of Israel, promoting hatred and violence.

"Anti-Semitic proclamations have no place in a democratic society, and it is absolutely intolerable that they have been uttered by a vice president of the government," Rodica Radian-Gordon wrote in a post on X.

"This expression is a clear call for the elimination of Israel, promoting hatred and violence. Anti-Semitic proclamations have no place in a democratic society, and it is absolutely intolerable that they have been uttered by a vice president of the government," she said.

"I hope that Spain fulfills its commitment to fight against anti-Semitism acquired through the 'National Plan for the implementation of the European strategy to combat anti-Semitism and promote Jewish life'."

The row was triggered by simultaneous announcements Wednesday from Spain, Norway and Ireland saying they would formally recognize Palestine as a state as of May 28.

That prompted Israel to pull its ambassadors from the capitals of all three countries, accusing them of "rewarding terror."