The Spanish government has canceled a contract worth nearly 700 million euros ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, as reported on Monday.
The deal with Israeli defense firm, Elbit Systems, consisted of 12 SILAM rocket launchers, according to an official document, and is the second Israeli contract to be terminated by the Spanish government within a week.
The announcement by the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez comes amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza, where the Sánchez administration has been one of the more vocal critics of the Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip, in its nearly two-year bid to root out the radical Palestinian extremist group, Hamas.
Last week, the Sánchez government moved forward with a measure to “consolidate in law” a ban on military equipment sales and purchases with Israel, citing Israel’s grueling offensive in Gaza.
The move comes one week after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in a televised speech on the 8th of September that sanctions and other measures against Israel were aimed to “stop the genocide in Gaza, pursue its perpetrators, and support the Palestinian population.”
The embargo announced by the Spanish government will also not be limited to the import of certain Israeli goods.
The Spanish measures were met with hostility by the Israeli government when Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that he was preparing sanctions on two Spanish ministers in the wake of Sánchez’s televised announcement last week, accusing the Spanish government of advancing anti-semitic policies.
In response to these accusations lobbed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Spanish counterpart announced that it would be recalling its ambassadors from Tel Aviv.
These troubles between the two governments mark a new low in Spanish-Israeli relations, even after Spain announced the cancellation of another contract first reported on in June for 168 anti-tank missile-launchers valued at 287 million euros ($337.5 million).
It is worth noting that the Spanish ban on the sale and purchase of Israeli military products was a course readily taken shortly after the Israeli incursion into Gaza following the attacks on October the 7th, 2023.
However, these recent measures announced by the Spanish government have now been codified into law, demonstrating a more formal opposition to the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
This most recent measure by the Spanish government comes amidst a staunch and extremely fervent pro-Palestine movement in Spain, in a society that has been harshly divided since the left-wing Sánchez government came into power in June of 2018.
Immigration, crime, allegations of public corruption, and slow economic growth have drawn Spanish conservatives and their more liberally-minded countrymen and women further apart.
The issue over Palestine has only exacerbated these divisions, and this was most clearly demonstrated over the weekend during the annual Vuelta a España, a nationwide Spanish cycling race that typically draws thousands of families from all over the country.
On Sunday the 14th, the race reached its final leg in the capital of Madrid, when the race was suddenly suspended due to massive disruptions by crowds of pro-Palestine protesters putting up roadblocks and barricades, hindering cyclists as demonstrators clashed with police.
Shortly after the race, PM Sánchez applauded the demonstrators, asserting that “There is no peace without justice”. Conservatives condemned the prime minister’s outspoken support for the demonstrations, which left families with small children scurrying out from underneath the crowds to evade the violence.
Union Cycliste Internationale, the international body governing overseas cycling competitions, criticized the politicization of sports by the prime minister, suggesting the prime minister’s statements were “contradictory to the Olympic values of unity, mutual respect, and peace”, adding, “the UCI strongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government.”
The Spanish government pushed back against the organization’s statement, submitting a letter to the sports body:
“In Spain, as in all democratic societies, the right to demonstrate freely and peacefully is a fundamental right, enshrined in our 1978 Constitution. If the cause is also a just and noble one in defense of Human Rights, such free and peaceful expression acquires the status of a moral obligation.”
