Europe divided between critics of Israel and those permissive of Gaza's policy

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, on Monday highlighted his position in favour of greater pressure on Israel. In Europe there are countries with a similar critical position, such as Sweden, Norway and Slovenia, while others are more willing to accept the attacks carried out by Israel, such as Germany and other eastern states.

Sanchez announced on Monday new measures against Israel, which will be implemented immediately, including the legal strengthening of the arms embargo, the prohibition of entry into Spain of those involved in the genocide and the provision of more humanitarian aid.

Critics

Other countries critical of Israel are Slovenia and Norway, which last year joined Spain and Ireland in recognition of the Palestinian State, and Sweden, which adopted it in 2014, which has also advocated the freezing of the Association Agreement between the Community bloc and Israel and the partial expulsion of Israel from the Horizon Europe research programme.

France, which has joined the group of critics this year, announced in July that it would approve the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Turkey is one of the most critical countries to the Israeli Government. In the past it had important diplomatic, military and commercial relations with Israel, but since the beginning of the invasion of Gaza in October 2022 it had been disrupting these contacts.

Russia strongly condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza and denounces the humanitarian disaster threatening the lives of 132,000 children under the age of five.

Supporters

Several Central European countries are among the most favourable to Israel in Europe, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, whose governments strongly reject the withdrawal of the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel.

The ultra-right-wing Hungarian government also took Netanyahu in April, despite the International Criminal Court's order to arrest him for war crimes.

Austria is also supportive of Israel, despite some criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza in recent months.

For Germany, Israel's security and existence, "out of historical responsibility," are "reasons of state." It rules out the imminent recognition of a Palestinian state because it believes that this step toward a two-state solution must be taken at the end of a negotiated process.

In Italy, the government of the ultra-right-wing Giorgia Meloni, an ally of Israel but a supporter of the two-state solution, has condemned the "disproportionate" offensive by the Israeli Government in recent weeks. It has also shown its readiness to recognise the Palestinian State when it can be "effective."