Israeli Overseas Minister Katz informed Spain that its consulate in Jerusalem won’t be allowed to assist Palestinians.
On the similar time, the EU’s overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell, a Spaniard, threw his full weight to assist the Worldwide Felony Courtroom, whose prosecutor is in search of an arrest warrant towards 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 mentioned. “The phrase antisemitic, it’s too heavy. It’s too necessary.”
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 pressured Jews and Muslims to flee, convert to Catholicism or, in some cases, face loss of life.
“Nobody will power us to transform our faith or threaten our existence — those that hurt us, we’ll hurt in return,” mentioned Katz.
Though the EU and its member nations have been steadfast in condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault by which militants stormed throughout the Gaza border into Israel, killing 1,200 folks 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 accordance with Gaza’s Well being Ministry.
The most recent assaults have centered on Rafah, the place Palestinian well being staff mentioned Israeli airstrikes killed not less than 35 folks Sunday, hit tents for displaced folks 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 in need of ordering a cease-fire for the Gaza enclave.
“Israel has to cease its offensive in Rafah,” Spanish Overseas Minister José Manuel Albares mentioned.
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 offended response from Israeli authorities, which summoned the nations’ ambassadors in Tel Aviv to the Israeli Overseas Ministry, the place they have 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 isn’t inside diplomatic courtesy and the customs of the Vienna Conference on Diplomatic Relations,” he mentioned.
“However on the similar time we now have additionally agreed that we’re not going to fall into any provocation that distances us from our objective,” he added. “Our purpose is to acknowledge the state of Palestine tomorrow, make all potential efforts to attain a everlasting cease-fire as quickly as potential and likewise, ultimately, to attain that definitive peace.”
