Spain announced on Monday that it will ban from its ports and airpsace ships and aircraft carrying weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel, in response to Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza, reported Reuters.
In addition to the ban, the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it would not permit anyone who has directly participated in "genocide" in Gaza to enter Spain.
It will also place an embargo on products manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denounced the measures as antisemitic, said Reuters.
Spain has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions, along with Ireland in the EU. Former Spanish politician and current European Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera recently categorised developments in Gaza as genocide in a speech she gave at French university Sciences Po.
“The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe’s failure to act and speak with one voice, even as protests spread across European cities and 14 UN Security Council members call for an immediate ceasefire,” she told students.
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned her comments, describing Ribera’s remarks as “baseless allegations,” adding that Ribera had “made herself a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda”.
The European Commission distanced itself from her remarks last Friday, with Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho, saying: “It’s not up to the Commission to judge on this question and definition, but really for the courts."
Israel strongly denies that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and is currently fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.
In a separate statement by the Spanish foreign ministry on Monday, Reuters reports that Spain strongly condemned Monday's "terrorist act in East Jerusalem", in which Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop, killing six people, including a Spanish national living in Israel.
