Following the announcement that Spain would recognize Palestine as a state last week, the Secretary General of the Israeli Labor Party, Eran Hermoni, sent a letter on Saturday to the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez criticizing the decision.
In the letter, Hermoni called the decision a contradiction of the traditional position of the Spanish government and that of social democratic parties.
Hermoni cited the position of the Socialist International, of which Sanchez is president, which says, "The SI remains committed to working with its member parties in Palestine and Israel, whose voices are among the most prominent for peace and the two-state solution and is needed now more than ever.”
Rewarding terrorism
Hermoni called the move a "windfall for the terrorist organizations that wish upon our demise."
He pointed out that to recognize Palestine while Israel is still suffering from the aftermath of October 7 was "a moral failure."
Hermoni also said that it was this pattern of increased anti-Israel attitudes in the Socialist International was the cause of the Israeli Labor Party's withdrawal from the SI in 2018, "we cannot take part in an organization that does not recognize our right to exist."
Hermoni also said that the Israeli Labor Party had paid the price for its commitment to peace due to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
He admonished Sanchez, saying, "You chose a path that strengthens the brutal terrorist organizations. This is not the behavior of friends and partners. Nor is it the way of cooperation between friendly countries or between sister parties."
Hermoni also attacked the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Yolanda Díaz, for calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea."
"Such a statement implies there is no place for the State of Israel to exist. This would mean ethnic cleansing for Jews in the State of Israel," he said.
In his final plea, "I am requesting that you retract your statement on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Speaking as a social democrat to a social democrat, I expect you and the other social democrats to take a balanced approach towards Israel and not to adopt an anti-Israel line in one of the most painful and dangerous times in our history as a state."
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.