2023-10-16 14:30:10
Sumar takes positions in the midst of the conflict in Israel. After a week in which the parliamentary group faced the war equidistantly due to the different positions that coexist in the parliamentary group, it now takes on its own profile and demands from Pedro Sánchez the “effective and comprehensive” recognition of the Palestinian State. This is one of the requests that Vice President Yolanda Díaz has included in the negotiation of the Government program between both parties and that, for the moment, has not received a response. It is, thus, one of the conditions of those from Sumar to say “yes” to the future investiture of the socialist leader.
Yolanda Díaz’s party has registered two initiatives today in the Congress of Deputies following the conflict opened by Hamas against Israel. She does so after “vetoing”, according to Podemos, an initiative she is in charge of regarding Israel. Then, those of Díaz promised a measure with the consensus of the entire parliamentary group. Sumar demands that the member states “suspend” the sale of weapons to Israel, in “strict compliance with international regulations.” It also urges the Congress of Deputies to request the European Union to “suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement”, in light of the “systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by its Government. They also want to review the funds that Israel receives from the EU or European programs with the aim of ensuring that they do not go to settlement policy.
In the NLP registered by Sumar, they demand that the European Union and also the Government of Pedro Sánchez – of which they are part – be part of “the solution to the conflict” by redoubling their efforts so that Israel complies with its obligations before the international system and the Oslo Accords. The parliamentary group condemns “unequivocally” the “acts of terror and attacks against the civilian population of Hamas and the State of Israel” and expresses its “solidarity” with all civilian victims, “regardless of their origin” so that they have “equal consideration and respect.” Demands the “immediate cessation” of the bombings on the Gaza Strip and an immediate “ceasefire”, as well as an exchange of prisoners and hostages supervised by the United Nations and the opening of humanitarian corridors to help and assist the civilian population in danger.
Sumar thus challenges the PSOE to recognize the Palestinian people at a key moment in the negotiations for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Precisely the PSOE has been in favor of the measure on countless occasions but has never carried it out. Pedro Sánchez himself was in favor last week of the European Union recognizing the Palestinian state. “The time has come for Spain to recognize the Palestinian people as a solution for peace. We would not be the only country that would do so,” ventured spokesman Ernest Urtasun at a press conference, who announced that the next coalition government must make that decision as one of the measures itself. “We urge the PSOE to do something that is a debt that we Spaniards have with the Palestinians,” he reaffirmed.
The recognition of the Palestinian State is, along with the Western Sahara conflict, a very sensitive issue for the Spanish left. Although the PSOE has shown itself to be historically closely linked to the Palestinian resistance and important gestures have been made over time, specific proposals still need to be fulfilled. The PSOE has been in favor of this in 2015 and 2017 and Pedro Sánchez even promised to bring this recognition to reality when he was president. His party also included it in the resolutions of the 40th Congress in October 2021. This recognition would be a political gesture, alone, and would join countries such as Greece, Finland, Poland or Romania, among others.
In the initiative registered by Sumar, Israel’s response with the activation of the “Iron Swords” operation is also described as a “war crime.” It represents “collective punishment against the Gazan population and an exercise of unpunished violence against the entire Palestinian people,” they criticize.
Podemos, which denounced Sumar’s exclusion from its proposal, has completely disassociated itself from it in a subsequent press conference after the party executive. Podemos has defended its proposal that involves taking Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court and calls for “ending Palestinian apartheid” and working “for lasting peace.”
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