Spain has reportedly cited “public interests” grounds for the cancelation of the arms order.
The Spanish government has canceled a munitions contract worth over $7 million with an Israeli firm, following pressure from its leftwing coalition partner Sumar, according to media reports.
On Wednesday it emerged that the interior ministry would go ahead with the purchase of the 9mm ammunition to be used by the Guardia Civil police force.
Responding to its coalition partner’s threat to exit, Spain reaffirms its October 2023 pledge not to provide arms and revenues to Israeli firms — now and in the futurehttps://t.co/g1htXkgtev pic.twitter.com/tQdY3DVgQd
— TRT World (@trtworld) April 24, 2025
This was despite the ministry announcing last year that it had cancelled the purchase of 15.3m bullets from Israel’s IMI Systems, The Guardian reported, because of Spain’s “commitment to neither buying weapons from, nor selling weapons to, the state of Israel following the outbreak of armed conflict in Gaza”.
The news was met with an angry response from the Sumar platform, founded by Yoland Diaz, Spain’s labour minister who is also one of three deputy prime ministers, the report said.
Sumar “called for the immediate cancellation of the contract,” the report added, while the leader of the platform’s United Left group “said he and his colleagues would not tolerate ‘any part of the executive financing a genocidal state.’”
‘Absolute’ Commitment
In a statement cited by The Guardian, the platform said its commitment to the Palestinian people “is absolute.”
“That is why we have repeatedly called for a total embargo on the purchase of weapons from Israeli, for the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Israel, for the imposition of sanctions, and for the international criminal court to be supported in the arrest warrants it has issued for Netanyahu and other members of his government and the Israeli army,” the statement added.
Reuters cited a government source as saying that the Israeli company “would be denied permission to import the defence material by the Spanish authorities on ‘public interest’ grounds, the Interior Ministry would rescind the contract and government lawyers would respond to any subsequent legal claims.”
The Guardian cited government sources as saying that “The parties that make up the progressive coalition government are firmly committed to the Palestinian cause and to peace in the Middle East.”
“That is why Spain will neither buy arms from, nor sell arms to, Israeli companies,” they added.
The sources also said that “any unfulfilled arms orders” from Israel which was placed before October 7, 2023, “would not proceed,” the report noted.
IMI Systems, according to Reuters, is owned by Elbit Systems which has been a target of protest by pro-Palestine movements such as Palestine Action.
Criticism of Other Contracts
Spanish politician Irene Montero, however, said on X on Thursday that “This is not about a contract,” adding “the Government has awarded 9 more contracts and our ports and airports are a stable route for weapons to reach Israel.”
She stressed that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s “commitment to Sánchez’s commitment to war and rearmament under Trump’s orders also implies complicity with the genocidaires.”
El problema no es anular un contrato. El problema es que hay 9 más adjudicados. El problema es la complicidad del Gobierno con los genocidas
pic.twitter.com/qx6qVsLXUN
— Irene Montero (@IreneMontero) April 24, 2025
A representative of the left-wing Podemos party, Montero has previously called on the government to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel.
In May last year, Spain became the 140th country to recognize the State of Palestine. A month later, the government also announced it would join South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza.
Rising Death Toll
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 51,000, wounding more than 116,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
Israeli airstrikes since Thursday morning have devastated multiple areas in Gaza, killing entire families and targeting shelters for displaced people.https://t.co/AE5rLPA8UY pic.twitter.com/O4sWHNqDrG
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 24, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
Let me guess…now the ZioNazis will claim that Spain is full of ” anti-Semites ” …
they’re actually predictable. And, DUH! Zionism IS antisemitism by design. They use the regular good, decent Jews as a stepping stone so they can promote their imperialism and bloodlust. Anyone can see that. Every time the Israelis claim that someone is an antisemite, just remember that a large portion of Israelis emigrated there from other countries. It’s like a New Yorker emigrating to Denmark, then claiming anti-Scandinavianism when someone calls them a worm from the Big Apple. The indigenous people of Palestine and Gaza are the actual Semites. ” Israel ” murders them. THAT is antisemitic.