Sánchez urges Netanyahu to work towards creation of ‘viable Palestinian state’

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (22 November) to offer the Palestinian people a perspective of peace and not only a military response to the Hamas terrorist attack,  Spanish government sources told EFE.

Sánchez officially began his mandate in the new government this week with a visit to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt, together with the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, whose country takes over from Spain the helm of the EU Council as of January  2024.

The two leaders will discuss with local authorities ways to find solutions to the conflict in the Middle East, in a trip that coincides with the start of a four-day “humanitarian pause” between Israel and Hamas on Friday morning.

De Croo told reporters that both Israel and the Palestinians would need to show “political courage” to achieve peace.

In talks with the Israeli side, Sánchez strongly condemned the Hamas attacks on 7 October but insisted that while Israel must give a proportionate response, it must avoid the suffering of Palestinian civilians, sources in the Spanish government told EFE.

Netanyahu showed Sánchez and De Croo a video with images of the October 7 attacks, including very shocking pictures, the same sources told EFE.

Sánchez told Netanyahu that terrorism cannot be fought only with the use of force, and to this end he recalled the Spanish experience against ETA, the Basque terrorist group, which killed some 840 people between 1958 and 2018.

“It is in Israel’s interest to work for peace, and today, peace means the establishment of a viable Palestinian state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, according to the UN resolutions,” he said.

Spain is committed to a solution to the conflict that envisages the coexistence of the two states, Israel and Palestine, Sánchez told Netanyahu.

Sánchez floats peace conference idea

The Spanish prime minister also reiterated his call to convene within a few months an international peace conference for Israel-Palestine, an option EU leaders already discussed at a summit in October.

Sánchez said the EU, Arab League and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation had endorsed the idea.

Meanwhile, the left-wing Sumar platform, Sánchez’s coalition partner in the new government, urged Madrid to recognise the “Palestinian State” as soon as possible.

The party’s spokesperson in Parliament, Marta Lois, said the recognition by Spain of the “Palestinian State” would be Madrid’s “first contribution to the peace process”.  “It has to be done now,” Lois stressed.

Sánchez has committed to leading the debate in the European Union for the future recognition of Palestine as a State, according to Patxi López, PSOE’s spokesperson in Parliament.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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