The Congress celebrated on Tuesday the debate on the hardest measure that a Spanish government against Israel has taken since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states in 1986. The act was finished, there was no way to know if the embargo decree of arms will be ratified on Wednesday in Congress. Ione Belarra, general secretary of Podemos, did not want to realize the vote of his group. Without at least its abstention will not go ahead.
In recent days, mass mobilizations against Gaza's genocide have arrived in Spain after two years when they were much superior in Great Britain, France or Germany, countries where their public opinions are not as properly as here. The boycott on the Cycling Tour inaugurated a new phase that culminated last weekend with mass demonstrations around the solidarity flotilla that furrowed the Mediterranean until it was arrested by Israeli naval forces in international waters. Moving this feeling of denunciation of Parliament is not so easy, because nothing is in this legislature.
Faced with the skepticism of several leftist groups that are not believed that the Government applies the embargo until the end, Minister Carlos Corps, who presented the initiative, wanted to put the ribbon very high. “It is a maximum text to what allows international legislation and European regulations,” he said. On its application, it was blunt to explain that “with the maximum rigor” will be applied: “the commitment to the embargo is total and absolute”.
The decree opens the possibility of exceptions for national security reasons, a concept too broad and of which did not give any example. Yes, he said that the prior agreement of the Council of Ministers must be available, which would rule out in theory that can be done in secret.
Civil society groups have denounced in the last year that previous promises of the government have not been fulfilled on the end of the import and export of defense material to Israel. Several ships used for this trade have arrived in Spanish ports in the midst of complaints of these groups. The biggest departure has been the importation of Israeli components and weapons to the armed forces and security forces, with which the government will have it difficult to hide.
If the vote goes ahead, it will be voted if the decree is processed as a bill with what parliamentary groups may introduce changes. Enrique Santiago, to add, said they hope to improve the text “to reinforce surveillance in Spanish ports”, a factor that will be crucial to verify that the embargo is fulfilled.
EH Bildu and Esquerra agreed to qualify the insufficient decree, but promised to support it. Mertxe Aizpurua said that priority is now “breaking the treaty of association that the EU still maintains shameful with Israel.” Gabriel Rufián called the decree “insufficient and cowardly”, although he considered more important the effects he may have: “But this serves so that a single weapon does not arrive to Israel and thus the life of a single boy or girl in Gaza is saved, it is worth it.”
Podemos's position was different. Ione Belarra called him “Embargo Fake.” He said he was very late: “Weapons embargoes are made before the crimes are committed.” He did not give any credibility to government promises and described as “cheap electoralism” the position of Pedro Sánchez and his government. That is an argument that the Popular Party also used in the Plenary by denouncing that Sánchez uses Gaza as a shield to escape his judicial problems.
Belarra did not tell what her group will do in the vote. Juns' position in favor of the decree, which was not enthusiastic, makes everything depend on Podemos. It seems difficult that it can cause the defeat of the embargo, which would be excellent news for the Netanyahu government. For the party, the Spanish government is as complicit in what has happened in Gaza as other European governments, despite its support for mobilizations against the genocide and more radical measures against Israel that they are currently not having the support of the European Commission and the majority of EU members.
The BDS Palestinian direction – the main international organization that has supported Israel for years – asked the parliamentary groups on Tuesday to take forward the decree. “Do not let this opportunity be lost,” he said in a statement. “Allow to fail would be a serious setback and would send a message of indifference in relation to genocide against our people. ”
Another thing is expected than the vote against the PP and Vox. It was Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo who went up to the gallery, which made him anticipate that he would not recognize the war crimes committed in Gaza, nothing that resembles what Feijóo said, who described as “inadmissible” Israeli conduct, or what they have affirmed autonomic presidents of the PP as Moreno, Azcón and Guardiola.
The PP deputy gave some examples to maintain that there is no genocide in Gaza. He said that there are Palestinian deputies in the Israeli Parliament. That is true, as well as that these deputies have denounced on numerous occasions what is happening in Gaza and are usually crossed out of traitors to the State by the Israeli right. He also said that Gaza “will be rebuilt,” because the plan proposed by Donald Trump says it and that it is still being negotiated. As if they only had to raise some new buildings, when all of Gaza is now an uninhabitable place for the human being and several cities have been razed. According to UN calculations, 90% of Gaza buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
The deputy recalled Hamas's attack on Israeli territory of October 7, 2023 with which they killed 1,139 people. 695 Israeli civilians, 373 Israeli military and police and 71 foreign civilians, according to official data. The largest number of victims occurred at the Supernova Musical Festival, where 364 civilians were killed. Álvarez de Toledo included atrocious facts of that killing, some of which were discredited very soon because there were no evidence to support that complaint: “Detrystrokeed babies of their mothers. Decapitated parents in front of their children. Violated, mutilated and exhibited women on social networks. ”
Several of these complaints refer to the facts produced in the Kibbutz closest to the border with Gaza. An Israeli digital television reported that “forty babies” had been killed in Kfar Aza. There was never any test of such atrocity, and there were many that day. The journalists who arrived in the town saw dozens of bodies, but not beheaded or “destroyed.” Israeli Social Security data, which included the names of the victims and the place and date of their death, allowed to know that 46 civilians died in Kfar Aza and that the youngest was 14 years old.
Another place where a slaughter occurred was at the Kibbutz Beeri, but not with the stories that spread the first days, which spoke precisely about dozens of decapitated babies. There was a ten -month -old dead baby.
Álvarez de Toledo did not mention the 67,173 Palestinians eliminated in Gaza, 3% of its population. Children and adolescents killed They have been 20,179, 20% of all deceased. The deputy of the PP did not seem to be relevant data.