Israeli Overseas Minister Katz advised Spain that its consulate in Jerusalem won’t be allowed to assist Palestinians.
On the identical time, the EU’s international coverage chief Josep Borrell, a Spaniard, threw his full weight to help the Worldwide Legal Courtroom, whose prosecutor is looking for an arrest warrant in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, together with the leaders of Hamas.
“The prosecutor of the courtroom has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism,” Borrell stated. “The phrase antisemitic, it’s too heavy. It’s too essential.”
Offended phrases abounded Monday, with Katz accusing Spain of “rewarding terror” by recognizing a Palestinian state, and saying that “the times of the Inquisition are over.” He referred to the notorious Spanish establishment began within the fifteenth century to take care of Roman Catholic orthodoxy that compelled Jews and Muslims to flee, convert to Catholicism or, in some cases, face demise.
“Nobody will drive us to transform our faith or threaten our existence — those that hurt us, we’ll hurt in return,” stated Katz.
Despite the fact that the EU and its member nations have been steadfast in condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault wherein militants stormed throughout the Gaza border into Israel, killing 1,200 individuals and taking some 250 hostage, the bloc has been equally crucial of Israel’s ensuing offensive that has killed greater than 35,000 Palestinians, in response to Gaza’s Well being Ministry.
The newest assaults have centered on Rafah, the place Palestinian well being employees stated Israeli airstrikes killed at the least 35 individuals Sunday, hit tents for displaced individuals and left “quite a few” others trapped in flaming particles.
The U.N.’s prime courtroom, the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, on Friday demanded that Israel instantly halt its offensive on Rafah, even when it stopped wanting ordering a cease-fire for the Gaza enclave.
“Israel has to cease its offensive in Rafah,” Spanish Overseas Minister José Manuel Albares stated.
Spain, Eire and non-EU member Norway plan to make official their recognition of a Palestinian state on Tuesday. Their joint announcement final week triggered an indignant response from Israeli authorities, which summoned the international locations’ ambassadors in Tel Aviv to the Israeli Overseas Ministry, the place they had been filmed whereas being proven movies of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault and kidnapping.
Albares criticized the therapy of the ambassadors. “We reject one thing that’s not inside diplomatic courtesy and the customs of the Vienna Conference on Diplomatic Relations,” he stated.
“However on the identical time we now have additionally agreed that we aren’t going to fall into any provocation that distances us from our purpose,” he added. “Our goal is to acknowledge the state of Palestine tomorrow, make all doable efforts to realize a everlasting cease-fire as quickly as doable and likewise, ultimately, to realize that definitive peace.”
