Last month, Belarra accused Israel of ‘genocide’ in Syria following the recent collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

By The Algemeiner

The leader of an influential far-left Spanish political party who recently served as a government minister this week discussed her “wishes” for the new year, calling for an end to so-called “genocide” against the Palestinians and the return of “stolen lands” to them before making any mention of her home country of Spain.

“My wishes for 2025: that the genocide against the Palestinian people ends, that the stolen lands are returned and that the guilty are brought to justice. Also, that the people of my country have a decent roof over their heads without having to spend their salaries and their lives trying to do so. A hug to all of you,” Ione Belarra posted on X/Twitter on Tuesday.

Belarra, who served as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s social rights minister between 2021 and 2023 but is no longer in the governing coalition, is now secretary general of the Spanish hard-left party Podemos (“We Can”).

The Spanish politician’s message for the new year was in line with her seemingly obsessive focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and fierce criticism of the Jewish state since Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7.

Last month, for example, Belarra accused Israel of “genocide” in Syria following the recent collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“Israel is taking advantage of the instability in Syria to advance its colonial and genocidal plan, bombing several areas, including Damascus,” Belarra posted on X/Twitter. “Virtually no Western media outlets are reporting on it. International inaction in the face of genocide endangers humanity as a whole.”

Belarra appeared to be referencing recent limited Israeli military operations to eliminate much of Syria’s strategic weapons arsenal and secure the buffer zone along Israel’s northeastern border amid uncertainty about the future of Syria.

There has been no evidence to indicate Israel’s military activities have resulted in mass casualties or are meant to achieve anything beyond short-term border security with a neighboring country that just underwent a regime change following a years-long civil war.

Such a focus on Israel is not new for Belarra, however.

Less than three weeks after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Belarra posted a video on X/Twitter calling on European Union (EU) nations to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and comparing Jerusalem’s defensive war against Hamas with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She also demanded stiff economic sanctions against the Jewish state and the prosecution of its leaders for “war crimes.”

More recently, Belarra and her Podemos party threatened to withhold its crucial support for next year’s budget unless the government breaks diplomatic relations with Israel among other actions.

Sanchez’s socialist-led government, which relies on a coalition of smaller parties to approve legislation, needs the votes of the four Podemos lawmakers in the lower house for the budget to pass.

However, Sanchez also requires support from some center-right parties that will have their own conditions to back the budget, creating a tough balancing act for the Spanish premier.

In October, Belarra said in a video message that her party would only support next year’s budget if the government “immediately breaks off diplomatic and trade relations with the genocidal state of Israel.”

Her second condition was for Madrid to “tackle the housing crisis by lowering rents by 40 percent by law, banning the purchase of houses by anyone who’s not going to live in them, and dismantling squadron commandos,” a reference to private companies that mediate in squatting situations to evict occupants.

Belarra added in a tweet: “Breaking relations with Israel and lowering rent prices by law is the minimum that can be demanded of a self-proclaimed progressive government. We need all your support to twist the [government’s] arm.”

Senior Podemos official Javier Sánchez Serna echoed the same point at the time, saying, “Pedro Sánchez’s government has been veering to the right for months and it’s going to get worse if someone doesn’t stand up. If the [government] wants to pass the 2025 budget, it will have to meet the two conditions proposed by Podemos: break relations with Israel and intervene in housing.”

Despite Belarra and Podemos’s criticisms of the government, Spain under Sanchez has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel.

In October, Sanchez urged other members of the EU to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its military campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sanchez’s demand came three days after the Spanish premier urged other countries to stop supplying weapons to the Jewish state.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain launched a diplomatic campaign to curb Israel’s military response. At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with Belarra falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

More recently, Spanish officials said they would not allow ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports. The US Federal Maritime Commission recently opened an investigation into whether Spain, a NATO ally, has been denying port entry to cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Israel.

Spain stopped its own defense companies from shipping arms to Israel in October 2023.

In May, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”

Spain, like many other countries around the world, experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents targeting the Jewish community following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Two weeks after the onslaught, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) warned of “the greatest escalation of antisemitism in Spain in recent times.” A statement from the FCJE on the upsurge in antisemitism highlighted the statements of Belarra, who at the time was Spain’s social rights minister and had already accused Israel of “genocide.”

“The demonstrations against Israel, the burning of Israeli flags, the proclamations calling Israel a murderer, genocidal, and the author of a planned ethnic cleansing, as Minister Ione Belarra has reiterated on several occasions, have inflamed [the situation],” the FCJE observed.

After attending a pro-Hamas demonstration in Madrid exactly two weeks after the Hamas atrocities, before Israel launched its ground campaign in Gaza, Belarra tweeted, “Dignity has filled the streets of Madrid, [which] today urged the end of the genocide that Israel is planning against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Freedom for Palestine.”

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Belarra and her Podemos party have threatened to withhold its crucial support for next year’s budget unless the government breaks diplomatic relations with Israel, among other actions.

By The Algemeiner

The leader of an influential far-left Spanish political party who recently served as a government minister appears to have accused Israel of “genocide” in Syria following the collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime this past weekend.

“Israel is taking advantage of the instability in Syria to advance its colonial and genocidal plan, bombing several areas, including Damascus,” Ione Belarra posted on X/Twitter on Tuesday.

“Virtually no Western media outlets are reporting on it. International inaction in the face of genocide endangers humanity as a whole.”

Belarra, who served as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s social rights minister between 2021 and 2023 but is no longer in the governing coalition, is now secretary general of the Spanish hard-left party Podemos (“We Can”).

The politician appeared to be referencing Israeli military operations this week to eliminate much of Syria’s strategic weapons arsenal and secure the buffer zone along Israel’s northeastern border amid uncertainty about the future of Syria.

Assad fled Damascus on Sunday as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule.

The deposed leader, who has been accused of war crimes during his crackdown on rebel forces since 2011, was a partner of Russia and allied with Iran, which for years has used Syrian territory to send weapons to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

However, many Western observers have expressed concern about the leading Syrian rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the UN.

This week, Israel conducted more than 350 aerial strikes targeting a wide range of military assets in Syria, with the aim of preventing them from falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to establish full control over the once-demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War.

He also announced the establishment of a temporary demilitarized “defensive zone” beyond the buffer zone in southern Syria aimed to prevent terrorist threats.

Israel has denied claims that it has gone beyond these areas further into Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs but would take action as needed to defend itself and ensure its security.

Despite a lack of evidence for Belarra’s claim regarding Israeli activity in Syria, the Spanish politician’s accusations have been in line with her fierce and repeated criticism of Israel since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of the Jewish state last Oct. 7.

Less than three weeks after the massacre, Belarra posted a video on X/Twitter calling on European Union (EU) nations to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and comparing Jerusalem’s defensive war against Hamas with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She also demanded stiff economic sanctions against the Jewish state and the prosecution of its leaders for “war crimes.”

More recently, Belarra and her Podemos party threatened to withhold its crucial support for next year’s budget unless the government breaks diplomatic relations with Israel among other actions.

Sanchez’s socialist-led government, which relies on a coalition of smaller parties to approve legislation, needs the votes of the four Podemos lawmakers in the lower house for the budget to pass.

However, Sanchez also requires support from some center-right parties that will have their own conditions to back the budget, creating a tough balancing act for the Spanish premier.

In October, Belarra said in a video message that her party would only support next year’s budget if the government “immediately breaks off diplomatic and trade relations with the genocidal state of Israel.”

Her second condition was for Madrid to “tackle the housing crisis by lowering rents by 40 percent by law, banning the purchase of houses by anyone who’s not going to live in them, and dismantling squadron commandos,” a reference to private companies that mediate in squatting situations to evict occupants.

Belarra added in a tweet: “Breaking relations with Israel and lowering rent prices by law is the minimum that can be demanded of a self-proclaimed progressive government. We need all your support to twist the [government’s] arm.”

Senior Podemos official Javier Sánchez Serna echoed the same point at the time, saying, “Pedro Sánchez’s government has been veering to the right for months and it’s going to get worse if someone doesn’t stand up. If the [government] wants to pass the 2025 budget, it will have to meet the two conditions proposed by Podemos: break relations with Israel and intervene in housing.”

Despite Belarra and Podemos’s criticisms of the government, Spain under Sanchez has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel since Oct. 7 of last year, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza.

The terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and abducted over 250 hostages in their rampage, leading Israel to respond with a defensive military campaign aimed at freeing those taken captive and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.

In October, Sanchez urged other members of the EU to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its military campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sanchez’s demand came three days after the Spanish premier urged other countries to stop supplying weapons to the Jewish state.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain launched a diplomatic campaign to curb Israel’s military response. At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with Belarra falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

More recently, Spanish officials said they would not allow ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports. Last week, the US Federal Maritime Commission opened an investigation into whether Spain, a NATO ally, has been denying port entry to cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Israel.

Spain stopped its own defense companies from shipping arms to Israel in October 2023.

In May, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”

Spain, like many other countries around the world, experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents targeting the Jewish community following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Two weeks after the onslaught, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) warned of “the greatest escalation of antisemitism in Spain in recent times.” A statement from the FCJE on the upsurge in antisemitism highlighted the statements of Belarra, who at the time was Spain’s social rights minister and had already accused Israel of “genocide.”

“The demonstrations against Israel, the burning of Israeli flags, the proclamations calling Israel a murderer, genocidal, and the author of a planned ethnic cleansing, as Minister Ione Belarra has reiterated on several occasions, have inflamed [the situation],” the FCJE observed.

After attending a pro-Hamas demonstration in Madrid exactly two weeks after the Hamas atrocities, before Israel launched its ground campaign in Gaza, Belarra tweeted, “Dignity has filled the streets of Madrid, [which] today urged the end of the genocide that Israel is planning against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Freedom for Palestine.”

The post Spanish far-left leader accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ — in Syria appeared first on World Israel News.

Spain has witnessed a notable rise in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.

By Ben Cohen, Algemeiner 

The head of the Spanish Jewish community warned of “the greatest escalation of antisemitism in Spain in recent times” during a meeting on Monday with the country’s prime minister.

Jews in Spain were confronting “a very worrying moment,” Isaac Benzaquén — president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) — told Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Along with European neighbors, Spain has witnessed a notable rise in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel unleashed a new war between the Jewish state and the Gaza-based terrorist organization.

However, while government ministers elsewhere in Europe have generally been supportive of Israel’s right to self-defense, several ministers in Spain’s left-wing coalition government, including Sánchez himself, have called for an immediate ceasefire, with one member of the cabinet from the far left Podemos alliance falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

The incidents recorded over the last fortnight include antisemitic graffiti daubed outside the home of a Jewish family in Madrid, as well as a rock lobbed through the window of a Jewish couple’s home. Pro-Palestinian slogans have also been scrawled on synagogues in Madrid and the Catalan city of Girona. In the most prominent incident, a pro-Hamas mob attacked the Or Zeruah Synagogue in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa, last Wednesday.

A statement from the FCJE on the upsurge in antisemitism highlighted the statements of Ione Belarra, Spain’s social rights minister, who accused Israel of “genocide.”

“The demonstrations against Israel, the burning of Israeli flags, the proclamations calling Israel a murderer, genocidal, and the author of a planned ethnic cleansing, as Minister Ione Belarra has reiterated on several occasions, have inflamed [the situation],” the FCJE observed.

After attending a pro-Hamas demonstration in Madrid last Saturday, Belarra tweeted: “Dignity has filled the streets of Madrid, [which] today urged the end of the genocide that Israel is planning against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Freedom for Palestine.”

Two other far left members of the cabinet — Equality Minister Irene Montero and Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzón — echoed Bellara’s views, with Garzón claiming that “what the Israeli government is doing is pure cruelty.”

The statements elicited an angry response from the Israeli Embassy in Madrid. “It is deeply worrying that certain elements within the Spanish government have chosen to align themselves with this kind of ISIS-style terrorism,” a statement from the embassy declared.

In a telephone conversation on Sunday with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, Sánchez called for what he described as a “humanitarian ceasefire,” expressing his “deep concern for the protection of all civilians and the need for sufficient and sustained humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza.”

While Netanyahu is planning to meet in person with EU leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, no meeting with Sánchez is on the agenda.

Over the weekend, Sánchez participated in a “peace summit” of Arab leaders in Cairo which failed to produce a unified statement on the escalating war.

“It is necessary to avoid a regional escalation of the conflict. We must address a definitive solution to reach peace, based on the two states-solution, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and safety,” the Spanish leader said following the parley.

Spain’s Jewish community is one of the smallest in Europe. According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (IJPR), the “core community” numbers 12,900, with up to 22,000 eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return

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