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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

‘Serious consequences’: Israel recalls its envoy to Spain over Palestine statehood

Israel recalled its ambassadors to Ireland, Norway and Spain on Wednesday and also summoned their envoys in protest at the three governments' upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state.

'Serious consequences': Israel recalls its envoy to Spain over Palestine statehood
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz speaks to reporters.(Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz charged that all three countries were rewarding the Palestinian militant group Hamas for their October 7th attack which sparked the Gaza war.

“The twisted step of these countries is an injustice to the memory of the 7/10 victims,” he said in a statement.

Israel’s envoys were being recalled from Dublin, Oslo and Madrid for “urgent consultations” and threatened “serious consequences”, the minister added.

READ MORE: Spain to recognise Palestinian state on May 28th

Katz said that the three countries’ ambassadors were also being summoned for a “conversation that would rebuke” their governments’ decision to recognise a Palestinian state by May 28th.

Hamas launched an attack on October 7th which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The militants also took 252 hostages, 124 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 37 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,647 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Katz said he would show the three ambassadors a video of the kidnapping of female Israeli soldiers during the Hamas attack.

“They decided to award a gold medal to the murderers and rapists of Hamas,” Katz said. “We will demonstrate to them what a twisted decision their governments took.”

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POLITICS

Spanish government begins proceedings to outlaw Franco Foundation

Spain's Ministry of Culture has opened legal proceedings to shut down the 'Fundación Francisco Franco', a group dedicated to the dictator who ruled Spain for almost forty years.

Spanish government begins proceedings to outlaw Franco Foundation

Spain’s Ministry of Culture has begun the process of outlawing the Fundación Francisco Franco because it fails to comply with the Democratic Memory Law, controversial legislation passed two years ago by the ruling Socialists (PSOE) to try and help Spain come to terms with its dictatorial past.

The foundation, which essentially promotes the legacy of former dictator General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975, was founded in 1976 and presents itself as a “cultural institution without political affiliation”. It also sells nationalist memorabilia and books.

Among many admiring articles on its website, the foundation claims that Franco helped lay “the foundations on which it was possible for the democracy we enjoy to be built” and that “his successes are considerably greater than his mistakes.”

READ ALSO: 13 changes you may have missed about Spain’s new ‘Civil War’ law

The Ministry explained that it started legal proceedings to shut down the foundation “because it is considered contrary to the general interest to defend Francoism”. The move, which will likely prove controversial in Spain, has been justified by the government because it “complies with the provisions of the Democratic Memory Law.”

The legal justification is an article of the law that outlaws any group “that glorifies the coup d’état and the dictatorship or extols its leaders, with contempt and humiliation of the dignity of the victims of the coup d’état, the war or Francoism, or direct or indirect incitement to hatred or violence against them because of their status as such.”

The Democratic Memory Law, sometimes also referred to as the Historical Memory Law, was passed in October 2022 and is a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to settle Spanish democracy’s debt to the past and deal with the complicated legacies of its Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.

READ ALSO: Spain to relocate remains of Franco’s fascist allies to more low-key grave

The Spanish right has long been opposed to any kind of historical memory legislation, claiming that it digs up old rivalries and causes political tension. Spain’s centre-right party, the Partido Popular, pledged at the time to overturn the law if it entered government.

Among many other measures, the law made the search and excavation of mass graves the responsibility of the government, started DNA banks to identify victims, and annulled Franco-era convictions.

Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun stated in the Spanish press that the decision will ultimately be made by the courts. “Basically what we are doing is starting the implementation of the Democratic Memory Law,” he said.

The Franco Foundation said in a press statement that “we find it incomprehensible” that the law is being “directed exclusively against the Francisco Franco National Foundation.”

The process is expected to be lengthy and could involve several levels of the Spanish judiciary. The Franco Foundation may appeal any decision.

Democratic memory legislation is one of a series of steps by the PSOE government to make amends with the past, including exhuming Franco’s body and moving his body to a private family grave in 2019.

The Franco dictatorship is in living memory for many Spaniards and still an emotive issue. Critics argue historical memory legislation digs up historical divisions, and several right-wing run regions of Spain have attempted to repeal the Democratic Memory Law, including Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and Castilla y León.

READ ALSO: IN PICTURES: Franco exhumed, transported by helicopter, and reburied as Spain takes ‘step towards reconciliation’

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