Spain plans to approve a complete and immediate arms embargo on Israel on Tuesday and may even declare Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers personae non grata, Spanish news outlet El País reported on Saturday.
The government in Madrid, which has escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric amid the war against Hamas in Gaza, is working to impose a sweeping ban on all direct and indirect deals on weapons or military technologies with any Israeli public or private body, the Spanish report said, citing unnamed sources.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government pledged to stop selling arms to Israel shortly after Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023. Last year, the Spanish government widened that commitment to include weapons purchases from Israel. In recent months, it canceled several high-profile deals with Israeli companies.
The El País report said the intention is for the more complete embargo to take immediate effect this coming week by making it part of a royal decree, with the text building on the content of a law bill presented last year by the left-wing Sumar political alliance, which is part of the ruling coalition and has demanded stronger moves against Jerusalem.
Sumar founder Yolanda Díaz reportedly declared that her alliance is working with the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party on a package of steps aimed at “severing relations with the criminal Netanyahu regime,” halting all trade relations altogether, and declaring the premier — as well as Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — personae non grata in Spain “for their incitement to genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing.”
She also pushed for Spanish ports to be off-limits to vessels transporting arms to Israel.
Spain is a long-time critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Speaking in the Spanish parliament last month, Sanchez called Israel a “genocidal state.”
His foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, told reporters last month that Spain would request the “immediate suspension” of the European Union’s cooperation deal with Israel, and would urge partners to impose an arms embargo.
Spain had already outraged Jerusalem by recognizing Palestinian statehood in May 2024, in a joint move with Ireland and Norway.
With those high tensions in mind, cycling team Israel-Premier Tech removed its name from its kit at the Vuelta a España race following pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests aimed at it during the event’s first two weeks.
The three-week grand tour has been rocked by protests, with organizers pressuring Israel-Premier Tech to pull out for safety reasons, which they refused to do.
Instead, the team, owned by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, modified its kit to retain only the team’s logo.
“In the interest of prioritizing the safety of our riders and the entire peloton, in light of the dangerous nature of some protests at the Vuelta, Israel–Premier Tech has issued riders with team monogram-branded kit for the remainder of the race,” the team said on social media network X on Saturday.
“The team name remains Israel–Premier Tech, but the monogram kit now aligns with the branding decisions we have previously adopted for our vehicles and casual clothing.”