By Deutsche Welle
Spain will ask the European Union on Tuesday to “break” its association agreement with Israel, considering that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu “violates international law” with their war campaigns, said this Sunday the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. He wanted to make it clear that Spain is a “friendly people” of Israel, but insisted that this does not imply sharing an “abuse” of international law that is translating into suffering, pain and death.
“This Tuesday, the Government of Spain will take to Europe the proposal that the European Union break its association agreement with Israel”because “that government that violates international law and, therefore, violates the principles and values of the European Union, cannot be a partner of the European Union; it is that simple, that simple,” he stressed at a pre-election campaign rally in the region of Andalusia.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the member countries meet in Brussels to analyze the war in the Middle East and Sánchez called on all of them to support the Spanish proposal, once again claiming his “no” to an “illegal” war that represents an “immense mistake.” “That is why I ask those who started this war to stop this war and to stop Netanyahu,” he stressed. The Israeli response has not been long in coming.
The time has come for the EU to break its Association Agreement with Israel.
We have nothing against the people of Israel, on the contrary. But a Government that violates international law and, therefore, the principles and values of the EU cannot be our partner.
NO TO WAR. pic.twitter.com/jsGOiGQDB8
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 19, 2026
A dialectical escalation in diplomatic friction
The Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel came into force in 2000, and includes a clause that makes the relationship subject to respect for human rights.. Spain first questioned the agreement in February 2024, when Sánchez and the then prime minister of Ireland sent a joint letter to the European Commission requesting it to evaluate whether Israel was meeting its human rights obligations after the start of the war in Gaza.
Since then, Sánchez – whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused of launching a “genocidal threat” against Israel – has gradually raised his tone on this matter, now with the war in Lebanon, until reaching this Sunday’s statement, which comes after, on Friday, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain sent a letter to the Commission asking that “at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel be debated.”
