Israel urges Spain to ‘reverse’ its recognition of Palestine as a nation state

ISRAEL has called on Spain to renege its recognition of Palestine as a nation state in the wake of the murder of six Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Israel Katz, Israel’s ever-controversial foreign minister, took to X to urge Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, to reverse the ‘dangerous step’ of recognising a Palestinian state.

He said: “The brutal murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas serves as a stark warning to any country that has recognised or is considering recognising a Palestinian state after the October 7th massacre. A Palestinian state would be controlled by Hamas, backed by Iran, and would become a radical Islamic dictatorship, threatening Israel and moderate nations in the region”.

He told Sanchez and Simon Harris, the Irish Taoiseach: “I urge you to reverse this dangerous step”.

Spain, alongside Norway and Ireland, gave formal diplomatic recognition to the Palestinian Authority in May in a move which Sanchez labelled as ‘historic’ and insisted would ‘contribute to the achievement of peace between Israelis and Palestinians’.

“Recognising the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice, it is a necessity to achieve peace”, he said during a televised debate from La Moncloa earlier this year.

The Israeli minister’s remarks come in the wake of the death of six hostages who were killed by Hamas in the war-torn Gaza strip.

The six victims were among the 250-plus people who were kidnapped during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which ignited the current conflict and resulted in nearly 1,200 deaths.

After the Spanish premier formally recognised Palestine as a nation state, Katz accused Sanchez of being an ‘accomplice in inciting the murder of the Jewish people’ as relations between the countries strained. 

He also criticised Yolanda Diaz, the Spanish deputy prime minister, who described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a ‘real genocide’. 

According to the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, over 40,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, with over 90,000 wounded.