“The twisted decision of their governments is a reward for Hamas; Hamas congratulates them for this. The decision will have more serious consequences for our relations with their countries.” With these words, the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Yaakov Blitshtein, reprimanded this Thursday the ambassadors of the three European countries – Spain, Ireland and Norway – who announced the day before the recognition of the State of Palestine next week. , as cited in a statement released by the ministry. The call is one of the measures that the head of the portfolio, Israel Katz, had advanced, along with the call for consultations of the diplomatic representatives of the three States. The minister was not present, as he was visiting France.
Diplomacy showed the ambassadors (Spanish Ana María Sálomon, Norwegian Per Egil Selvaag and Irish Sonya McGuinness) a reduced version of the video of the kidnapping of the soldiers guarding the Nahal Oz base during the attack on October 7. In the recording, made by the Hamas militiamen themselves with the cameras they had attached, they are seen receiving threats with their hands tied; some of them, bloody. The forum that represents the families of the hostages allowed it to be disseminated, precisely to pressure the Government to reach an agreement for their release, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to show it to the diplomatic representatives.
After the viewing, the general director showed them Hamas’s statement celebrating the announcement as proof, “for those who still had doubts,” of “to what extent the recognition of a Palestinian state represents a reward for terrorism.”
This same Wednesday, an Israeli deputy, Sharren Haskel, sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which she asks him to respond to Spain’s decision by bringing to the Council of Ministers, and to the plenary session of Parliament, the “recognition of the independence” of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Andalusia, Aragon and the Canary and Balearic Islands. All of these autonomous communities, she assures, have been showing a “clear will for independence.” In a message on the social network
Haskel sits in the opposition. She is a deputy for New Hope, the split from Netanyahu’s party (Likud) led by former Justice Minister Gideon Saar and which competed in the last elections along with Benny Gantz’s party (National Unity). Both formations remained in the opposition after the 2022 elections, but they entered together in the War Cabinet formed after the October 7 attack. In March, they put an end to their alliance and Saar’s party left the Executive.
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