A leading member of the leftist coalition government in Spain has called for Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government to be brought before the International Criminal Court for “war crimes.”
The general secretary of the far-left Trotskyite Podemos party and the acting Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra called on the caretaker socialist Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez to petition the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes committed in Palestine by the Netanyahu government in Jerusalem.
In a video published on social media, Belarra claimed, according to El Mundo, that “the State of Israel is carrying out a planned genocide in the Gaza Strip” and that the “bombings on the civilian population are a collective punishment that seriously violates international law and can be considered war crimes.”
The Spanish politician went on to claim that the “deep cause” of the ongoing conflict is “Israel’s occupation and apartheid of Palestine.” Belarra also accused the Israeli government — apparently citing disputed quotes from Netanyahu — of propping up Hamas in order to “weaken secular sectors of the Palestinian resistance” and therefore it is “unspeakable hypocrisy… to use Hamas as an excuse to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians, including boys and girls.”
“Using the terrible murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed factions as an excuse to justify Israel’s crimes and the masquerade in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable,” the Podemos leader said.
Balerra went on to accuse the European Union and the United States of being complicit in the alleged war crimes, saying that they “are not only looking the other way, they are encouraging the State of Israel in its policy of apartheid and occupation that seriously violates human rights.”
“The EU must recover its values of peace and abandon its following of the US,” she said, continuing: “It must stop being an accomplice to a war criminal like Netanyahu… It is urgent to recognize that what we see in Gaza are war crimes and that Palestinian lives matter.”
We ask our partner that, as the Government of Spain, we bring Netanyahu before the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Here is my official statement 👇 pic.twitter.com/Wuu8nnKfVp
— Ione Belarra (@ionebelarra) October 16, 2023
In response, the Israeli embassy in Madrid — without naming Belarra specifically — said that it is “deeply worrying that certain elements within the Spanish government have chosen to align themselves with this kind of Isis-style terrorism.”
“These statements are not only absolutely immoral, but they also endanger the security of the Jewish communities of Spain, exposing them to the risk of a greater number of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks.”
Spain’s foreign ministry said that it is right in a democracy for politicians to be able to “express their positions as the representative of a political party,” the Guardian reported.
“In any case, the Spanish government’s position on the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas is clear: unequivocal condemnation; demands for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages, and the recognition of Israel to defend itself within the limits set by international law and international humanitarian law.”
In her video, Belarra went on to encourage Spanish citizens and those throughout Europe to take to the streets to protest against Israel.
The Spanish government minister attended an anti-Israel rally in Madrid on Sunday, which was organised in part by the controversial group Samidoun (Solidarity Network with Palestinian Political Prisoners), which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last week would be banned in Germany for its ties to the Hamas terror group.
At the demonstration in Madrid, El Mundo reported, crowds chanted slogans such as: “Israel is not a country, it is an occupation”, “Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people”, “Palestine will win”, “It is not a war, it is a genocide” and “Zionism is Nazism.”
According to a report from Reuters, at least 2,383 Palestinians have died and a further 10,814 were left injured as of Sunday morning in the retaliatory strikes from Israel on Gaza and the West Bank. This followed the series of terror attacks on Israel the previous week in which over 1,300 people in Israel were murdered by Hamas terrorists and nearly 200 were kidnapped.
Israel Says 199 Hostages Taken in Hamas Terror Attack Identifiedhttps://t.co/ztHAdorPIl
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 16, 2023
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