Spain rejects Israel’s suggestion that it should accept Palestinians from Gaza

European critics of Israel accused of 'hypocrisy' if they do not take in Palestinians

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said 'no third party has the right to tell it what to do'. EPA

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday rejected Israel's suggestion that Spain should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

“Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state, as Spain and most countries want,” Mr Albares told Spanish radio RNE, adding that “Spain makes its decisions in a sovereign manner and no third party has the right to tell it what to do”.

Mr Albares said that Spanish foreign policy is coherent and that it applies the same standards to Palestine and Ukraine, in reference to the EU's stronger unity on the eastern European nation facing pressure from Russia. Spain has no “double standards, because it is about protecting civilians and international law”, he said.

The European Union supports a two-state solution, which Madrid is also committed to, Mr Albares said. Speaking on Wednesday, an EU Commission representative said: “Gaza is an integral part of a future Palestinian state.”

Mr Albares was reacting to Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz's comment that nations who have opposed his country's military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.

“Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories,” Mr Katz said.

“Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse to do so. There are countries like Canada, which has a structured immigration programme, that have previously expressed a willingness to accept Gaza residents.”

Last year, Spain was among a handful of EU countries, along with non-EU Norway, that recognised Palestinian statehood in an effort to pressure the Israeli government in the same direction. Spain also stopped weapons exports to Israel in protest against the humanitarian toll of the Gaza offensive, which has killed more than 47,500 people since October 7, 2023.

Mr Katz has also told the Israeli army to prepare a plan to allow the “voluntary departure” of residents from Gaza, after US President Donald Trump drew widespread condemnation for announcing plans to take over the strip.

Displacement of Palestinians is one of the most sensitive and explosive issues in the Middle East. Forced or coerced displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime, banned under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Meanwhile in the UK, a Foreign Office minister said the Gaza Strip must be an “integral part” of a future Palestinian state, in Britain’s latest rebuke to Mr Trump and his proposals for forced displacement.

Anneliese Dodds said Palestinians “must determine the future of Gaza” with support from regional states, after Mr Trump suggested the US could redevelop the war-torn territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Ms Dodds told the House of Commons that any peace settlement must be “grounded” in a two-state solution. “Palestinian civilians should be able to return to, and rebuild, their homes and their lives. That is a right guaranteed under international law,” she said. “Gaza is home to two million Palestinians and remains an integral part of what must become a future Palestinian state.”

Ms Dodds said the US had played a “critical role” in negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. “We must now work together to ensure the ceasefire is implement in full and becomes permanent,” she said.