The Spanish government has awarded 46 arms purchase contracts to Israeli companies amid the attack on Gaza.

BarcelonaThe Spanish government has awarded 46 contracts to Israeli military industries worth €1,044,558,955 since October 7, 2023, when the genocidal offensive against the Gaza Strip began. Of these contracts, 10 have not yet been formalized, including the purchase of rocket launchers, missiles, and other war material. The Delàs Center for Peace Studies revealed this this Friday, after the data was made public on the State Procurement Platform.

With this data in hand, the Second Vice President of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, has called for the rescission of all arms purchase contracts that are still ongoing with Israeli companies. The existence of these contracts was revealed the day after the Spanish government ultimately halted a contract to purchase 15 million rounds of ammunition for the Civil Guard. has ended up leading to a government crisisDíaz, who in an interview this morning on RNE (National Radio) appeared conciliatory with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska—the main guarantor of the purchase—acknowledged that she "senses" that halting these contracts could end in litigation. However, the minister considered that there are "sufficient legal grounds" to support the decision to halt them.

Recently, Sánchez himself and his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, have been reiterating both in the media and in Congress that there were no arms sales transactions with Israeli companies so as not to fuel the war machine in the midst of the genocide in Gaza. However, data from the research center show that the contracting has continued. European legislation on the arms trade prohibits the purchase and sale of military equipment to countries likely to use them in operations that violate human rights, as is the case with Israel, which is facing accusations of genocide before the UN Court of Justice. The accusation also weighs on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is being prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his handling of the Gaza war. According to Díaz, this outstanding arrest warrant against Netanyahu is precisely what justifies the termination of the Interior Ministry contract as legal and should not entail compensation. However, the People's Party (PP) has already announced that it will take the matter to the Court of Auditors.

Since October 7, 2023, at least 61,000 Palestinians have died (mostly children, the elderly, and women), while hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure have been destroyed, and the Strip's more than two million inhabitants are subjected to a siege of starvation. Therefore, the Delàs Center notes "the need to immediately cancel all contracts, whether formalized or ongoing, that contribute to maintaining, legitimizing, or promoting the genocide and war crimes committed by Israel's military actions against the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza and the West Bank."

Some of the contracts correspond to maintenance or modernization services for products acquired in the past, but others are new agreements with the Israeli war machine. The center warns of a "worrying complicity between Spanish and Israeli arms companies." It also notes that the Spanish government could declare an arms embargo if it had the political will.

Excerpt from the report of the Delàs Center for Peace Studies

Descarrega't el document sencer del Centre Delàs d'Estudis per la Pau