\n Protests have been held throughout Spain against Israel’s wars on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran [Getty\/file photo]<\/p>\n
Israel<\/a> said on Saturday it had reprimanded Spain’s most senior diplomat in Tel Aviv over the blowing up of a giant effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> in a Spanish town this week.<\/p>\n The seven-metre (23-foot) figure was packed with 14 kilograms (31 lb) of gunpowder in El Burgo, a small town near the southern city of Malaga, in a decades-old ceremony on 5 April, its Mayor Maria Dolores Narvaez told local television.<\/p>\n “The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s<\/a> government’s systemic incitement,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X which highlighted a video clip.<\/p>\n Spain, in response, refuted Israel’s claims. “The Spanish government is committed to fighting against antisemitism and any form of hate or discrimination. As such we totally reject any insidious allegation which suggests the contrary,” a Spanish Foreign Ministry source said.<\/p>\n El Burgo’s Mayor Narvaez said the town has previously used effigies of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the annual event. Spain has been an outspoken critic of the US and Israeli wars on Iran and Lebanon<\/a>, despite US threats to punish uncooperative NATO allies.<\/p>\n Spain and Israel have also been embroiled in a long-running diplomatic row which began over criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Netanyahu ‘genocidist’\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to the row, Spain’s Minister of Health Monica Garcia described Netanyahu as a “genocidist,” saying that standing up to the Israeli premier is “a source of pride for Spain”.<\/p>\n Speaking on television, Garcia said: “This man is a genocidist. He has carried out one of the largest genocides of our time, killing 70,000 civilians in Palestine, more than 20,000 of them children, and has destroyed southern Lebanon.”<\/p>\n Her remarks came after Israel\u00a0said it would remove Spain from the military coordination centre in Kiryat Gat over Madrid’s criticism of Israeli military operations in the region.<\/p>\n Netanyahu accused Madrid of waging a “diplomatic war” against his country.<\/p>\n In response, Garcia said: “Is this a bad joke?”<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a joke or not,” she added, “but what is certain is that Spain is standing up to this man”.<\/p>\n “It is a matter of pride that Spain and its government are building a wall against this man and against the genocidal regime,” the minister said.<\/p>\n