Too little, too late? Yes, but surely better than nothing — unless, of course, it’s pure virtue signalling.
Israel is beginning to learn that committing all manner of war crimes, including genocide, against a civilian population on a constant basis for almost two years eventually comes at a price. The country’s economy is experiencing what 130 of its top economists describe as a “spiral of collapse.” In the 50-country Nations Brand Index, Israel came rock bottom.
As it continues to escalate its genocide in Gaza and its war crimes on the West Bank and other parts of the Middle East, some governments in Europe are finally, at long, long last, beginning to say “¡Basta!” Popular movements throughout the world have been hollering that word since Israel began its horrific pogrom in Gaza 23 months ago, many of them risking arrest.
That was followed by this:
Which was then followed by this:
On Saturday night, an estimated 180,000 people gathered in Mexico City’s Zócolo for the concert of Calle 13’s lead rapper, Residente. Led by a tearful Palestinian girl, ear-splitting chants of “Viva Palestina” and “Palestina Libre” rang out across the gargantuan square. Standing next to the girl and Residente was Palestine’s ambassador to Mexico, Nadya Rasheed.
In recent weeks, dockworkers in France, Italy and other countries have refused to load any arms components bound for Israel. As Labor Notes reports, this was no one-off protest:
It built on a decades-long tradition of internationalism, anti-militarism, and anti-imperialism among European dockworkers, including coordinated actions to block weapons to Saudi Arabia in 2019.
In the past week, Italian dockworkers have threatened to “shut down all of Europe” and block all shipments to Israel if communication with the latest aid flotilla bound for Gaza is lost. Speaking at a protest in the port of Genoa on behalf of the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), a syndicate of various grassroots unions in Italy, a dockworker said:
If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades – even for just 20 minutes – we will shut down all of Europe. Our young women and men must come back without a scratch, and all this cargo, which belongs to the people and is going to the people, must reach its destination, down to the very last box. 13,000-14,000 containers leave this region every year for Israel. Not a single nail will leave anymore.
On that Freedom Flotilla:
Over the past weekend, Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares said he would support expelling Israel-Premier Tech from the Vuelta a España cycling tour after the Israeli cycling team was targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who disrupted the race. In addition, a Spanish chess tournament this week reportedly banned Israeli players from competing under their national flag, before reversing its decision.
The BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement appears to be gathering steam with each fresh Israeli assault on Gaza, despite all the desperate attempts to suppress it on both sides of the Atlantic. Just as happened in Apartheid South Africa, it is Israel’s own vile actions that are driving the success of BDS.
Spain Imposes (Partial) Sanctions on Israel
On Monday, Spain became the fourth EU country to impose sanctions on Israel, after becoming one of the first Western European countries to recognise Palestine last year. The country’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain must be on the “right side of history”:
The government of Spain believes it is one thing to protect your country, protect your society and quite another to bombard hospitals and starve innocent children to death. What PM Netanyahu presented in October 2023 as a military operation in response to the atrocious terrorist attacks by Hamas has ended up turning into another wave of illegal occupations and an unjustifiable attack against Palestine’s civilian population — an attack that the UN Special Rapporteur and other leading experts have qualified as “genocide”.
The sanction measures adopted include the “legal consolidation of an arms embargo on Israel that has been applied de facto since October 2023”, reports El País. Some have contested this claim, including ourselves. A study by the Delàs Centre holds that Spain has bought arms from Israel worth more than $1 billion since the start of the Gaza offensive, while the government has claimed that some of the contracts included in that list were suspended.
Spain “will be banned from buying or selling weapons, ammunition and military equipment from/to Israel”, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez announced on Monday morning. From the wording, it seems that the ban will not extend to IT security products, of which Israel is a global leader.
The sanctions package also prohibits Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons or fuel from calling at Spanish ports or entering Spanish airspace. This prohibition was already de facto in place: Spanish authorities have prevented the stopover of Israel-bound ships on at least three occasions in the past year, which even prompted the US Federal Maritime Commission to open a sanctioning file against Spain.
Madrid has also imposed a ban on the “the entry into Spanish airspace of State-owned aircraft carrying defence material bound for Israel”. This is a measure aimed in practice at the United States, whose military aircraft or those chartered by the Pentagon regularly transport military equipment to Israel via Europe.
However, it may be difficult for Spanish authorities to enforce these bans on maritime vessels and aircraft given they currently do not inspect ships and aircraft that NGOs claim to be suspected of being involved in arms trafficking to Israel.
Madrid has also pledged to increase aid to the Palestinian authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as well as impose an embargo on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. It will also ban anyone who has participated directly in Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza from entering the country.
In response, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Sánchez of trying to divert public attention from his domestic corruption scandals and qualified his measures as “antisemitic”.
Tel Aviv has also banned Labour Minister (and Deputy Prime Minister) Yolanda Diaz and Youth Minister Sira Rego, both from left-of-centre junior coalition partner Sumar, from entering Israel.
One thing the Sánchez government has ruled out doing is to sever diplomatic ties with Israel, arguing that it would cut Spain off from dialogue not only with the government of Israel, but also with civil society groups that oppose Netanyahu and, above all, with the Palestinian Authority.
At the same time, this just happened yesterday (for some reason the insert function on twitter/X wasn’t working for this particular tweet):
That Makes Four
So far, four EU countries (out of 26) have announced the imposition of some form of sanctions on Israel: Ireland, Slovenia, Belgium and Spain. But to what extent will they actually impact Israel’s economy and ability to wage war?
Nick Corbishley 