'Unbearable death toll': Spain gives voice to Palestinian cause in EU

"It is in Israel's interest to work for peace. And today peace means the establishment of the Palestine state," the Socialist premier, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Sánchez stressed that he backed Israel's "right" to defend itself following the "atrocities" carried out by Hamas on October 7, he said the number of Palestinians killed by Israel's military response "is truly unbearable".

Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 239 people taken hostage when Hamas fighters crossed the border in the unprecedented attack. The Hamas-run health ministry says that more than 14,100 people have been killed in Israel's military riposte on Gaza.

Sánchez, who is also to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, has repeatedly endorsed the two-state solution -- a Palestinian state established in territory that Israel captured in 1967 -- since the conflict began.

As he was sworn in for a new term this month, Sánchez said his foreign policy priority would be to "work in Europe and in Spain to recognise the Palestinian state".

Sánchez will on Friday travel to Egypt. He is accompanied on his trip to the Middle East by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, whose country will take over the EU presidency on January 1.

He trasladado al primer ministro @netanyahu que Israel tiene derecho a la autodefensa, pero debe respetar el derecho internacional y el derecho humanitario.

Es urgente detener la catástrofe humanitaria en Gaza.

Debemos celebrar cuanto antes una conferencia internacional de paz… pic.twitter.com/fbxasQumbB

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) November 23, 2023

'Ripple effect'

Sánchez hopes his stance will have a "ripple effect" in the rest of Europe, at a time when many in the Arab world say that western countries are being too friendly to Israel, Isaias Barrenada, an international relations professor at Madrid's Complutense University, told AFP.

Spain's parliament voted in 2014 in favour of a resolution calling for recognition of Palestine as a state. The vote however was non-binding and there has been no follow up. Several smaller European nations such as Sweden and Malta have recognised Palestine but so far no major EU member has taken this step.

Sánchez, who appointed a minister whose father is Palestinian in his new cabinet, is under "pressure" to take this step from the left-wing and public opinion, said Barrenada.

Sánchez governs in a minority coalition with hard-left formation Sumar. In October Israel's embassy to Spain accused some of Sánchez's ministers of aligning themselves with Hamas after a hard-left cabinet minister called Israel's military offensive in Gaza "a genocide".

'Different sensitivities'

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, a former foreign minister in Sánchez's government, said in an interview published Monday in Spanish daily El País that Spain forms part of a group of nations with "clearer sympathy for the Arab world".

Geographically close to North Africa, Spain turned to Arab nations during the 1939-1975 dictatorship of Francisco Franco to get around its isolation in the West, said University of Burgos international relations professor Juan Tovar.

The country only established official ties with Israel in 1986. That followed lingering tensions over Israel's opposition to Spain's entry into the United Nations at the end of World War II because of Madrid's close ties with Nazi Germany during the Franco regime, added Barrenada.

In a mediation role, Spain hosted a 1991 peace conference attended by all Arab parties in direct conflict with Israel -- the Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanians and Lebanese. Given the divergences within the EU "it is hard to imagine that Spain has the capacity to reorient the European position" but "it can help show there are different sensitivities within the EU," said Barrenada.