Spain has frozen not only sales but also purchases of weapons from Israel since October 7 of last year, when Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis. triggering an offensive on Gaza that has already left 42,000 dead. This has been assured by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, to the head of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, who on behalf of the five ministers of Sumar He asked this Tuesday that all ongoing contracts to purchase weapons from the Israeli military industry be “immediately canceled.”
According to Defense sources, Robles has responded to his Council of Ministers colleague that all contracts for the acquisition of Israeli weapons are on hold and that only the repair of parts, especially aeronautical, that were temporarily exported, was contracted in the last year. to Israel and returned after being repaired to guarantee the operability of Air Force aircraft.
The statement that purchases of Israeli military material have been suspended represents one more step in an arms embargo on the Netanyahu Government that Spain has not formally declared, since no international organization has done so, but it would be applying de facto. Until now, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had limited himself to pointing out that since October 7, 2023, no new arms exports to Israel have been authorized, implicitly admitting that previously authorized deliveries would have continued to occur. Trade sources maintain, however, that for years strict control has been maintained on arms sales to the area and those that could be used in the conflict between Israel and Palestine are not authorized.
Regarding the acquisition of Israeli weapons, no member of the Government had revealed until now that it had been paralyzed. Although President Pedro Sánchez even said in the plenary session of Congress that the “buying and selling” of military material had been suspended, La Moncloa did not want to clarify if it was a lapse nor did it offer any explanations in this regard.
The Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 sent a letter to Robles in which, although he accepted that no new deliveries of weapons to Israel have been authorized, unlike Podemos, he warned: “There are some purchase contracts in progress with Israeli supplier companies and what we ask is that they be canceled immediately.” According to the spokesman for the minority party of the coalition government, “the proposal is the result of rigorous and exhaustive review work to ensure that the total arms embargo on Israel becomes effective, beyond the policy of not authorizing new licenses.” , already in force since the beginning of the conflict.”
In reality, arms purchases from Israel are much more important than sales, since the Israeli military industry has become in recent years one of the main suppliers to the Spanish Armed Forces. According to a report by the Delàs Center for Peace Studies, the Ministry of Defense has approved since October 7 of last year programs with Israeli companies, alone or associated with Spanish companies, worth 1,027 million euros.
The relationship includes the High Mobility Rocket Launcher System (SILAM) for 576.4 million, the supply of 168 Spike anti-tank missile launchers for 237.5 million or POD designators for air combat systems for 207.4 million. While the last two are import operations for weapons systems from the Israeli company Rafael, the first is a manufacturing contract in Spain with an Israeli technological partner (Elbit). The report also mentions the American intelligence systems company Palantir, awarded a €16.5 million contract, for its close relations with Israel.
Programs on hold
However, according to what Robles told Bustinduy, the acquisition of Israeli products for these programs would have been suspended. Sources from the socialist ministries have shown their discomfort at the fact that the head of Social Rights supervises how other ministers carry out their duties, when the reverse does not happen with the management of the dependency policy carried out by his department.
In his letter, Bustinduy argues that Sumar has already made this request formally within the coalition government and also through public statements, in which he has urged to find “effective formulas” to stop “any operation of purchase and sale of weapons – and any other goods or services related to the war effort and illegal occupation – with a country involved in massive and systematic violations of human rights.”
After recalling the summons of the International Court of Justice to prevent a genocide in the Strip, ignored by the Netanyahu Government, and the extension of the conflict to Lebanon, he demands “the suspension of any contract or agreement in progress with Israeli defense and /or security that are linked both to the escalation of the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon and to operations in all of the settlements illegally occupied by Israel in Palestine.
“This measure,” adds Bustinduy, would be “alienated with the president’s latest statements.” Pedro Sánchez, who has called on the international community to stop supplying weapons to Israel, as the letter recalls, and “it would allow Spain to comply with our obligations under international law in coherence also with the position adopted by this Government,” it concludes.
Sumar’s demand comes at a time when the leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has called for the severance of commercial and diplomatic relations with Israel and has conditioned the support of her five deputies in Congress for the upcoming budgets to this point. This same Monday, dozens of cultural personalities such as the filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, the writer Alana S. Portero, the actress Victoria Luengo, the presenter Andreu Buenafuente or the artist Rozalén, among others, have asked Pedro Sánchez by letter to “take urgent measures to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel”.
