SANTIAGO Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, made a surprise visit to Israel on Tuesday where he promised to ‘undo’ Spain’s recognition of a Palestinian state if he ever becomes Prime Minister.
The hard-right politician, who has been labelled as Islamophobic by some critics, met with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, in a meeting in Jerusalem where he reiterated his support for Israel’s right to ‘defend herself’ in the face of Hamas aggression.
Abascal’s intervention was timed to coincide with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s announcement that his government was formally recognising Palestine in an effort to ‘contribute to the achievement of peace between Israelis and Palestinians’.
The Vox leader told Netanyahu, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Israel’s controversial military campaign in Gaza, that ‘Pedro Sanchez is not Spain’, adding that the Spanish PM was ‘taping over the corruption allegations against his wife by focusing on Palestine’ and launching ‘attacks’ against Javier Milei, the hard-right leader of Argentina.
Abascal’s meeting is the second time he has visited Israel since the start of the conflict.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain have deteriorated over the war in Gaza, with Sanchez a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinian citizens.
Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, responded to Sanchez’s calls for a ‘permanent ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the immediate release of all the Israeli hostages held by Hamas’ by labelling the Spanish premier as ‘complicit in inciting the murder of the Jewish people’.
Katz’s comments were criticised by Jose Manuel Albares, the Spanish foreign minister, who also said the government were ‘not going to fall into provocations’ after his counterpart also posted a video on X of a Spanish couple dancing interspersed with clips of Hamas’ October 7 attack which killed some 1,200 people.
