Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is likely to have again warmed the hearts of Hamas terrorists on Thursday after his government scrapped an arms deal with an Israeli firm.
His government’s hatred of the Israeli regime—which has seen it stoop low enough even to try banning the Middle East’s only democracy from taking part in Eurovision, of all things—is such that the contract tear-up was seen through despite warnings of serious ramifications for Spain.
Sources told AFP on Wednesday that state legal services had “advised against the cancellation due to the advanced stage of the processing of the contract” which “would have meant paying the company without receiving the equipment.” And after the news broke on Thursday, El Mundo immediately pointed to “the risk of a lawsuit and significant compensation.”
Sánchez’s team was also concerned about the prospect of the government coalition breaking down over the continued existence of the contract, with Sumar and IU threatening to withdraw. Leftists in the Sumar party had stressed that the contract amounted to “a blatant violation” of the government’s pledge not to trade weapons with Israel.
Spanish officials are now considering how to wriggle their way out of the €6.8 million contract with Israeli firm IMI Systems, which would have supplied ammunition to the Spanish Civil Guard, with as little cost as possible. Sources said to reporters on Thursday that they were “examining possible legal reactions and complaints.”
The decision to scrap the contract came less than 24 hours after officials suggested they had come to the opposite conclusion, and followed a number of contradictory statements.
Hamas thanked Sánchez shortly after its horrific October 7th attacks, when he proposed to recognise a Palestinian state. It has since described French President Emmanuel Macron’s similar suggestion as an “important step.”
