Sánchez has emerged as one of Israel’s most vocal critics in the EU. He accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing genocide in Gaza and denounced the joint U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran as an “immense error.”
Critics claim that Israel’s continued strikes against Lebanon are undermining a peace settlement in the broader region. During his speech in Andalusia, Sánchez called for an immediate end to the war in the Middle East that has led to a surge in global oil prices and mass displacement across the region.
The foreign ministers of Spain, Ireland and Slovenia accused Israel of breaching the association agreement with the EU in a letter to the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, on Saturday. They said that the approval of the death penalty by the Israeli parliament and violent action by Israeli settlers in the West Bank are violations of fundamental human rights.
Madrid’s proposal to end the association agreement, however, is unlikely to immediately succeed as it requires unanimity among the EU’s 27 member countries.
The idea is likely to be opposed by a German-led group of countries that have consistently voted against tougher measures. A European Commission proposal in September to sanction some Israeli ministers and suspend trade-related sections of the association agreement failed to reach a majority in the European Council.
Israel’s embassy to the EU did not immediately reply to a request for comment.