MADRID: Spain’s leftist government announced it will investigate companies that advertise products or services originating from Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
The measure follows last week’s approval of a decree banning promotion of such goods and services in Spain.
The consumer ministry stated this aims to prevent firms from benefiting from the occupation.
Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy said his office would use “all necessary resources” to ensure no company operating in Spain profits from the occupation.
“No firm should have its balance sheet stained with the blood of the Palestinian people,“ the statement quoted him as saying at an event in July.
The decree forms part of a package that includes an arms embargo on Israel aimed at halting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called “the genocide in Gaza”.
The United Nations recently updated its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 158 firms from 11 nations.
Spanish builder ACS, one of the cited companies, swiftly requested removal from the list.
The company stated it had sold its Israeli-operating subsidiary SEMI in 2021 and “does not carry out any activity in Israel or in the Israeli settlements”.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, though Israel considers most legal.
Some “outposts” are illegal but often tolerated and sometimes later legalised.
Spain remains one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks. – AFP