Israel orders a boycott of the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

BarcelonaIsrael escalates diplomatic conflict with Spain. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Pedro Sánchez of being "anti-Semitic" andhaving launched a "genocidal threat" against the Jewish stateTel Aviv called this Friday for a "boycott" of the next edition of the Mobile World Congress, to be held in March 2026 in Barcelona. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi ordered the cancellation of all preparations for Israel's participation in the fair. All of this, according to the newspaper Haaretz, in response to the Spanish government's "anti-Israeli" actions, its alleged "systematic support for Hamas" and "false accusations of genocide."

It should be noted that the Barcelona City Council approved last May a proposal to break relations with the Jewish state which included the prohibition of the Barcelona Fair from hosting "Israeli pavilions" or those of its arms companies. A decision, approved with the votes in favor of the PSC, BComú, and ERC, which should have already reduced, at the very least, the Israeli state's participation in the exhibition. In response to the Barcelona City Council's stance against the Gaza war, Israel already This August, he vetoed the entry into the country of the city's mayor, Jaume Collboni..

The Israeli government's action against the MWC, in any case, comes after Monday's The Spanish government announced a package of nine measures against the "genocide" in Gaza., where more than 64,000 people have been murdered since the Israeli offensive began on October 7, 2023. These measures include an immediate arms embargo and a ban on entry to Spain for all persons linked to "genocide" and "extermination," in the words of the same. At that time, Israel responded by banning two ministers, Yolanda Díaz and Sira Rego, from entering the country, and now it has added the decision to not participate in the important telephone fair held every year in the Catalan capital.

Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Israeli embassy in Spain this morning to "categorically reject the false and slanderous statements" made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office against Pedro Sánchez. In a tweet on X this Thursday, he accused the Spanish government of "genocidal threats" for having said that Spain would approve measures against Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza because, lacking nuclear weapons, it is what it has at its disposal.