“Factually Wrong and Morally Irresponsible:” Spanish PM Calls Israel a ‘Genocidal State’
Israel has summoned the Spanish ambassador but Spanish officials are unlikely to take much notice, already leading the European drive to recognise a Palestinian state.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attends a plenary at Las Cortes Congress of Deputies in Madrid on May 7, 2025.
Photo: Thomas Coex / AFP
Israel has summoned the Spanish ambassador but Spanish officials are unlikely to take much notice, already leading the European drive to recognise a Palestinian state.
Perhaps fearful that his government’s lack of support for Israel’s fight against Hamas has not been made clear enough, Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez this week effectively attacked Israel as a “genocidal state.”
Asked during a parliamentary session on Wednesday what his government was going to do about “trading with a genocidal state like Israel,” Sánchez—without challenging the slur—said, “we do not do business with a genocidal state.”
Shannon Seban from the Combat Antisemitism Movement bashed the prime minister’s words as “a distortion of reality and a cynical weaponisation of language.”
Words matter, and calling Israel a ‘genocidal state’ is not only factually wrong—it is morally irresponsible. The Holocaust was a genocide. Terminology can fuel hatred and antisemitism.
Seban added that politicians ought to be more careful with their words, “especially when the stakes are this high.”
But Sánchez is not the first member of his government to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the same thing last year.
Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement later on Wednesday that it had summoned the Spanish ambassador for a formal reprimand over what it described as “serious remarks” by the PM.
Spanish officials are unlikely to take much notice, and are already leading the European drive to recognise a Palestinian state, which is gaining them the praise of Hamas.
Podemos secretary general Ione Belarra also took to the streets on Thursday, sporting a keffiyeh—now widely regarded as a show of support for Hamas’ fight against Israel—and likewise accusing Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration of genocide.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
