Spain summons Israeli envoy over ‘intolerable’ activist arrest

MADRID: Spain summoned Israel’s top envoy in Madrid to protest the “unacceptable and intolerable” detention of a Spanish activist from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the foreign minister said Thursday.
The countries’ latest diplomatic clash came as Spain decorated the outspoken UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, who has divided Western countries and infuriated Israel.
An Israeli court has extended until Sunday the detention of Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, as well as another activist, Brazilian Thiago Avila, snubbing international demands for their release.
On Wednesday, “we again summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires to convey to her how unacceptable and intolerable it is to extend the detention of our citizen,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told parliament.
The Global Sumud Flotilla was the second initiative in a year aiming to break an Israeli blockade on war-ravaged Gaza, which has suffered shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023.
Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla in international waters off Greece last week, expelling the activists to Europe but arresting Abu Keshek and Avila.
Rights groups say the arrests were illegal and that the men have suffered abuse in jail.
Israeli authorities have rejected the abuse allegations but have filed no charges against them.
Relations between Spain and Israel have plummeted since the start of the Gaza war, sparked by the attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza a “genocide.”
Israel recalled its ambassador after Madrid recognized a Palestinian state in 2024, while Spain formally dismissed its own top envoy in Tel Aviv in March.
On Thursday, Sanchez presented the Order of Civil Merit to Albanese, an Italian, in Madrid “for her extensive work documenting and denouncing the violations of international law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement.
Washington announced sanctions on Albanese, who has long accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, for “biased and malicious” criticism of the United States and Israel.
Israel has denied the genocide allegations and accused those making them of antisemitism.
Sanchez asked the European Commission on Wednesday to prevent US sanctions on Albanese from being implemented in the bloc, his office added.
France and Germany have also called for her resignation over remarks in which she referred to a “common enemy of humanity,” but Albanese denies the phrase referred to Israel.

Spain summons Israeli envoy over ‘intolerable’ activist arrest