Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday, May 24, that he had decided to “sever the connection” between Spain’s diplomatic mission and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over Madrid’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
“I have decided to sever the connection between Spain’s representation in Israel and the Palestinians, and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank,” Katz said in a post on X. It was not immediately clear how Israel would carry out the threat.
Asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP) about the practicalities and consequences of Katz’s announcement, the Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment. Katz said his decision was made “in response to Spain’s recognition of a Palestinian state and the anti-Semitic call by Spain’s deputy prime minister to (…) ‘liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.’”
Apartheid
There are two scenarios here:
The Palestinian people are a separate people, and not Israel’s responsibility. In which case, Israel has no business preventing these independent people from talking with the Spanish
The Palestinian people are part of Israel, and they are being given unequal access to Spain.
In either scenario, Israel is acting as an apartheid state or as a colonial apartheid state…