EU-Israel relations collapse as Spain and Ireland prepare to formally recognise state of Palestine

The European Union and Israel had a big disagreement before EU countries Ireland and Spain decided to recognize a Palestinian state. Spain said they might impose punishments on Israel for attacking Rafah in Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said to Spain that they cannot support Palestinians from their consulate in Jerusalem.

At the same time, the EU’s leader in foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, from Spain, strongly supports the International Criminal Court. The court’s prosecutor wants to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders, like those of Hamas.

“The court prosecutor has been threatened and accused of being against Jewish people,” Borrell said. “The word antisemitic is very bad. ” “It’s really important. ”

On Monday, Katz accused Spain of approving a Palestinian state as a way of supporting terrorism. He also mentioned the Inquisition, a cruel group from the 15th century that made Jews and Muslims leave Spain, convert to Christianity, or be killed. Katz said that time is over now.

Katz said that no one can make us change our religion or threaten us. If anyone hurts us, we will also hurt them back.

The EU and its member nations were against the attack by Hamas on Oct 7, but they also criticized Israel for their attack that killed many Palestinians.

In the most recent attacks, Rafah was the main target. Palestinian health workers said that at least 35 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Sunday. The attacks also hit tents where displaced people were staying and left many others trapped in burning debris.

The highest court of the UN, the International Court of Justice, said on Friday that Israel needs to stop its attack on Rafah right away. However, it did not say that Israel has to stop fighting in all of Gaza.

Spain’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that Israel needs to stop its attack in Rafah.

Spain, Ireland, and Norway, which is not part of the EU, are planning to officially recognize Palestine as a state on Tuesday. Last week, they announced together, and this made Israeli authorities very angry. They called the ambassadors of the two countries to their Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv. There, they showed them videos of the Hamas attack and kidnapping that happened on October 7.

Albares said that the way the ambassadors were treated was not good. “We don’t accept anything that is not polite and doesn’t follow the rules of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” he said.

“But we’ve also decided not to be provoked into straying from our goal,” he added. “We want to officially recognize Palestine as a state tomorrow, work hard to make a lasting peace agreement as soon as we can, and ultimately, to achieve long-lasting peace. “