{"id":46510,"date":"2025-04-24T11:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/46510\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T11:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:47:11","slug":"despite-stated-ban-spain-continues-to-buy-arms-from-israel-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/46510\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite stated ban, Spain continues to buy arms from Israel: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>OVIEDO, Spain\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite government pledges to suspend arms purchases from Israel, Spain has awarded or formalized 40 arms procurement contracts with Israeli companies since October 2023, Spanish daily El Diario reported Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes a day after Spanish media reported that Spanish police bought \u20ac6.6 million ($7.5 million) worth of bullets from an Israeli company, despite the government\u2019s vow to cancel that specific contract.<\/p>\n<p>The purchase sparked a rift in Spain\u2019s left-wing coalition government, with junior coalition partner Sumar calling it a \u201cflagrant breach\u201d of government commitments and demanding \u201cimmediate rectification\u201d of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>However, El Diario, citing a forthcoming report from the Delas Center for Peace Studies, said that contract is just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<p>The report said Spain has struck arms deals worth \u20ac1.04 billion with Israeli companies since Israel\u2019s offensive on Gaza began.<\/p>\n<p>Ten of the 40 contracts were allegedly concluded after October 2024 \u2013 the month Spain\u2019s Defense Ministry announced it had halted all military purchases from Israel. Nine contracts have been awarded but still require finalization.<\/p>\n<p>Among the pending deals are two major contracts: a \u20ac576 million acquisition of the SILAM rocket launcher system, based on Israeli firm Elbit\u2019s PULS technology, and a \u20ac237 million purchase of SPIKE missiles awarded to PAP Tecnos, a Spanish subsidiary of Israel\u2019s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>Finalized contracts reportedly include items such as ammunition, electronic warfare systems, ballistic plates, and projectile programming devices.<\/p>\n<p>The Defense Ministry told El Diario that some of the programs are \u201cnon-substitutable,\u201d a term used to justify continuing the transactions.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli companies involved in the contracts have publicized weapons such as SPIKE missiles as \u201cbattle-tested\u201d in Gaza, raising ethical and legal concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Spain\u2019s progressive government has been among Israel\u2019s harshest critics in the EU and recognized Palestinian statehood last year.<\/p>\n<p>However, mounting criticism from left-wing politicians and activists accuses the government of hypocrisy for failing to uphold its pledge to halt arms trade with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/p\/subscription\/1001\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"font-size:12px; color:#444; text-decoration:none;\" rel=\"noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                    Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. <b style=\"color:#1897F7\">Please contact us for subscription options.<\/b>&#13;<br \/>\n                                <\/a>&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OVIEDO, Spain\u00a0 Despite government pledges to suspend arms purchases from Israel, Spain has awarded or formalized 40 arms&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[5340,2000,299,104,25539,25540],"class_list":{"0":"post-46510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-anadolu-ajansi","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-spain-israel","13":"tag-spain-weapons-israel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114392782960535578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}