The parliament of Spain on Wednesday passed a government decree formalising a total arms embargo on Israel, part of a broader package of sanctions announced last month in response to the Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, said an Anadolu report. Spain, one of Israel’s strongest critics in the European Union, says the decree bans exports and imports of all defence and dual-use technology to and from Israel, prohibits ships and aircraft carrying fuel or material for possible military use from entering Spanish ports and airspace, according to the Spanish government.
The vote passed narrowly after the far-left Podemos party joined other left-wing and regional allies in supporting the decree.
Podemos leader Ione Belarra, who had withheld her party’s position until the final hours, said the government must go further by cancelling existing contracts and cutting all ties with Israel. She had earlier described the decree as a “fake embargo,” accusing the government of continuing with arms contracts and allowing “four ships carrying US military equipment bound for Israel” to dock in Spanish ports despite the decree going into effect last month.
During a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo defended the embargo as “a firm step and pioneering at an international level.”
Defence Minister Margarita Robles defended the measure as “the final step in a long process” that began after Oct. 7, saying Spain “stopped selling military material to Israel that very day.”
The conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox opposed the decree.
The embargo is part of a sanctions package adopted by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government in September, which also includes a ban on imports of products from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and increased humanitarian assistance to Palestine.
