Spain Makes History With Permanent Arms Embargo on Israel Over Gaza Genocide

Spain has officially locked into law a total arms embargo on Israel, becoming the first EU country to take such a sweeping step in response to what it calls “genocide” in Gaza.

Lawmakers in Madrid voted 178 to 169 on Wednesday to cement a decree first announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez back in September, a move that’s already sent diplomatic shockwaves through Europe and the Middle East.

“Israel’s response to the terrible attacks committed by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, has ended up becoming an indiscriminate attack against the Palestinian population that the majority of experts have called genocide,” reads the preamble of the new law.

The measure permanently bans the sale of weapons, dual-use technology, and any military-related exports to Israel. It also blocks the import of Israeli defence goods, effectively cutting all military trade between the two countries.

Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles called the vote “the final step in a long process” that began when the war first erupted.

Sánchez’s leftist government had already imposed a de facto embargo last year, but this law formalises it and adds new layers, including bans on the transit of fuel or materials with potential military use through Spanish ports and airspace.

There’s one narrow exception: equipment that’s technically “dual-use,” meaning it can serve both civilian and military purposes, could still pass if banning it would harm Spain’s “national interests.”

The timing of the vote was intentionally shifted. Lawmakers delayed it by a day to avoid it coinciding with the October 7 anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, a move that followed criticism from the Israeli embassy, which had slammed the original schedule as “cynical and reprehensible.”

The final approval came after last-minute backing from the far-left party Podemos, whose leader Ione Belarra said the government still hadn’t gone far enough.

“We must sever all ties with Israel,” Belarra urged.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox voted against the measure, accusing Sánchez of endangering Spain’s international relations.

Still, the vote underscores how far Spain has gone in breaking with the EU’s traditional stance. Sánchez, already one of Israel’s fiercest critics in Europe, has repeatedly called for international accountability and has urged sports bodies to ban Israel from competitions, just as Russia was banned after invading Ukraine.

That demand, unsurprisingly, triggered an angry response from Tel Aviv.