By Alyssa McMurtry
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - In the parliamentary debate in which Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood next week, left-wing politicians demanded more concrete measures against the Israeli government, including the withdrawal of ambassador to Tel Aviv.
Inigo Errejon, spokesperson for the government's junior coalition partner Sumar, said it’s “great news” that Spain will recognize Palestine, adding that it cannot be celebrated too much because it comes amid a “genocide.”
“For us, this is a starting point,” said the speaker for Sumar, calling on Sanchez to support South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice; the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s arrest warrants for war crimes surrounding Gaza; to open similar proceedings within Spain; a full weapons trade embargo; and to cut ties with the Israeli government.
“If it made sense to withdraw the Spanish ambassador to Argentina over insults, how doesn’t it make sense to withdraw our ambassador to Tel Aviv for the deaths of 35,000 people — 15,000 of whom were children?” Errejon asked, referring to Spain’s move this week to permanently recall the ambassador in Buenos Aires after Argentinian President Javier Milei called Sanchez’s wife “corrupt” while in Madrid.
The speakers of Spain’s smaller left-wing parties also agreed that the move is too little too late.
“They are almost going to be recognizing more debris and corpses than actual territory,” said Gabriel Rufian of the Catalan group ERC.
“We need to take concrete steps… but you don’t dare to because Israel is an ally of the United States,” Ione Belarra of Podemos told Sanchez.
Later, she pointed out that the move to recognize Palestine is symbolic and that the government has not specified where it will recognize Palestinian territory or what it will do to protect it.
However, Spain’s right-wing parties disagreed with Spain’s move to recognize Palestine at all.
“What Spain has done is established a position of equidistance between satanic terrorism and a democratic state like Israel,” said Santiago Abascal of the far-right party Vox during the debate.
Meanwhile, the main opposition leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the Popular Party, said the priority should not be recognizing Palestine, but “getting back the hostages, a cease-fire, humanitarian aid and avoiding escalation.”
Feijoo also accused Sanchez of using the recognition of Palestine to avoid talking about corruption and of “supporting the disappearance of Israel."