{"id":296214,"date":"2025-06-02T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=296214"},"modified":"2025-05-27T05:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T04:51:53","slug":"spain-convenes-intl-conference-to-call-for-arms-embargo-on-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/spain-convenes-intl-conference-to-call-for-arms-embargo-on-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Convenes Int\u2019l Conference to Call for Arms Embargo on Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaza, \u201ca Gaping Wound on Humanity\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

26 May 2025\u00a0<\/em>– The Spanish wire service EFE<\/a> reports that delegations from 20 countries met yesterday in Madrid in a push to pressure Israel to halt its total war on Gaza and to establish a Palestinian state. Convened by Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares, the conference sought to move to concrete actions.<\/p>\n

Israel had blocked all humanitarian aid for two months beginning in March, provoking a crisis of malnutrition in Gaza, almost all of whose people have been made internal refugees several times over by the Israeli military. Israel began letting a small amount of aid in last week, apparently under the pressure of the Trump administration, but United Nations officials decried it as \u201ca drop in the ocean\u201d compared to the urgent needs of 2.2 million Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Addressing the attendees at the conference on Sunday, Madrid\u2019s foreign minister said, \u201cThe sole interest that all of us gathered here today have is to stop this unjust, cruel, and inhumane Israeli war in Gaza, break the blockade of humanitarian aid, and move definitively toward a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of this last point, according to the Anadolu Agency<\/a>, he asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s the alternative? Kill all the Palestinians? Send them, I don\u2019t know where -\u2014 to the moon?\u201d<\/p>\n

Albares said<\/a>, \u201cGaza is a gaping wound in humanity\u2026 There are no words to describe what is happening in Gaza\u2014but just because there are no words doesn\u2019t mean we will remain silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the proposed measures were not intended to be anti-Israel and that Spain recognized Israel\u2019s legitimate security needs. \u201cBut,\u201d he observed, \u201cexactly the same right to peace and security that the Israeli people possess is also possessed by the Palestinian people.\u201d He added,\u201dthe Palestinian people cannot be condemned eternally to the estate of a people of refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albares called for three tangible steps, including the suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement. As for the second, he insisted, \u201cWe all need to implement an arms embargo; there can be no arms sales to Israel.\u201d Third, he called for a review of the list of individual sanctions maintained by each country and the EU. He noted that Spain had for some time put sanctions on individual Israelis who were \u201cmaking the two-state solution impossible\u201d and urged the other countries in attendance to do the same.<\/p>\n

The foreign minister said that Spain would introduce a Security Council resolution with the State of Palestine (which Spain recognizes) demanding the immediate entry of massive civilian aid for Gaza without hindrance.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption>File. Jose Manuel Albares. European Union, 2023 \u2013 Source: EP \u2013 Laia Ros. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license<\/a>. Via Wikimedia Commons.<\/a> <\/small><\/i><\/figure>\n

Speaking of the gathering, he observed optimistically, \u201cThere is a lot of diplomatic muscle in Madrid.\u201d He urged the breaking of the \u201cvicious circle\u201d of Israeli-Palestinian violence.<\/p>\n

The Madrid Plus group of nations met once before with 10 attendees, including Western European nations that had recognized the State of Palestine (Ireland, Spain and Norway), along with the Middle Eastern countries of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye. The membership has doubled for this meeting. Germany, Italy, France, and Portugal joined this time, having been absent at the first gathering. Brazil was also there.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/em>Juan Cole<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is the founder and chief editor of <\/em>Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of, among many other books<\/em>, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires<\/a> and <\/em>The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – juancole.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 May 2025 – Gaza, \u201ca Gaping Wound on Humanity\u201d – Delegations from 20 countries met yesterday in Madrid in a push to pressure Israel to halt its total war on Gaza and to establish a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3287,547,1559,1854,101,100,1199,87,865,88,2416,771,427,2897,250,880,99,70,965,1025],"class_list":["post-296214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-anti-zionism","tag-brazil","tag-collective-punishment","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-nakba","tag-palestine","tag-sociocide","tag-spain","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296215,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296214\/revisions\/296215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}