Hello, im Chris Williamson and youre watching palestine declassified. Were the only weekly tv show thats dedicated to investigating and exposing the israeli regimes global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. In this weeks show well be exposing the activities and an Israeli Lobby Group operating in spain calling itself action and communication on the middle east, which is usually refer to by its initials acom. On its linkedin page, a. Com describes itself as in organization that aims to reinforce the political relationship between spain and israel by working with governments, Political Parties, the media and civil society, but latif abuchakra has been peering behind acoms benine veneer where she discovered rather different and sinister reality, as shell explain in this report. The former social rights minister in spain, eoni balada is one of the few european politicians who has been vocal. From the outset in criticizing israels Genocidal Campaign in ghazza. While she was still a minister in the Spanish Government, she took to the streets in the aftermath of 7th of october, of denouncing israels planned genocide in razza, and calling for sanctions as well as a ban on arms cells to the zionist regime. Barara was quickly held for her heroism, but she also came under attack from zionist lobby groups in spain acom, which stands for action and communication on the middle east. Is an ultra rightwing islamophobic Israel Lobby Group which engages in lawfare and deformation tactics against supporters of palestine. The lobby Group Reported balara to the Spanish Prosecutors Office for incitement to hatred, claiming that she had abused her position and had exceeded her of right to freedom of expression. Acom has a long history of trying to shut down free speech on israel. In response to a Boycott Campaign which calls for apartide free spaces, which has shops and local authorities in spain boycotting the zionist regime. Acom has taken dozens of legal cases to try to stop the boycott. One of their cases even reached the Spanish Supreme Court which declared the boycot discriminatory. While baladas views are popular in spain, she lost her job in the Spanish Government following a reshuffle in late november 2023. Although its likely that her dismissal was influenced by other factors. The spanish Prime Minister. Minister Pedro Sanchez has himself been much more vocal than other european leaders in support of palestine. Sanchez declared last november that spain would soon recognize a palestinian state. Sanchez also raised his concerns about the numbers of palestinian children being killed and said that he seriously doubted whether israel was complying with International Humanitarian law. The israel lobbys influence in spain has been less powerful than in many European Countries and poling indicates that support for palestine is strong in spain. Early last year, for example, the mayor of barcelona, ada colao, wrote to Benjamin Netanyahu to announce that the city was suspending relations with israel due to its systematic violation of palestinian human rights. Even the European UnionForeign Affairs chief joseph borell, who had a long career in spanish politics and who once volunteered on an israeli kibut recently criticized. Israels allies for continuing to supply the zionist regime with weapons. Despite this broader support for palestine and spain, vela has been unique in the strength of her criticism of israel and has been at the forefront of highlighting the genocidal character of the zinist onslaught on razza. Joining me in the studio as usual is our resident expert david miller, davidson academic and a former professor at Bristol University and is now a nonresident Senior Research fellow. At the center for islam and Global Affairs at istanbul zaham university. Hes also a codirector of the lobby and watch dog spinwatch and is a leading british scholarly critic of israel. Our guest today is Timothy Appleton who joins us via skype. Madrid. Tim is author and political campaigner with a phd in philosophy. Hes currently linguistics lecturer at madrids camilo jose fella university. Welcome to the show. Tim, as we saw in our report there ioni barara has been an outspoken advocate for palestine, hasnt she . I wonder if you could just say a word or two about how thats been received by the spanish public and indeed the political establishment for that matter. And thanks for uh. Um uh the invitation to speak, chris, um, good evening, yes, the um uh, the reception shes had by the spanish political establishment has not been especially warm, um, although thats probably to do with the relationship between the Political Parties in spain, um, which is quite a a cantanchous relationship in general, but on the substance the issue, um, shes not really speaking um, too far out of turn, because theres a lot of consensus. For palestine amongst ordinary spanish people. Um, there was a poll done by yuugav at the end of 2023 with found that essentially spain was the the most pro palestinian country in western europe um in terms of Public Opinion. So this is a country where you pay a relatively low political price for speaking out for palestine, i would say. I wonder what you would say then the sort of distinguishes spain from from other european. In uh countries that particularly in relation to you Public Opinion and and indeed to government policy . So as we just heard there, yes, i mean Public Opinion is very strongly in favor of palestines and critical of zionism, but thats been the case in many other Foreign Policy issues, i mean i remember when i first went to spain there was a there was a referendum about whether they should leave nato and of course that the kind of antimilitarism has been very strong war movement against in relation to iraq was very strong, and of course weve seen cities like. Barcelona and others declare that theyre going to boycott uh israel, so theres been a strong pro palestine sentiment in spain for some considerable time, and of course the spanish have is one the only countries, one of the only two countries in europe which has actually decided to stop sending arms to israel, italy of course is the other one, other countries, the netherlands and belgium have done Little Things like stopped f25 parts going or theres a part part part of a uh the netherlands which is b which is said there will be no uh relations, whereas countries like germany have supply, continue to supply significant proportions of the the the ordinance and the weaponry which is being used to kill children uh everyday in gaza, so theres a sense really that Southern Europe is more progressive than Northern Europe and in particular spain and Public Opinion theyre very strongly in favor of the palestinians and thats why bara is a is a popular figure there and has has been perhaps the most uh radical of. All european politicians, even more radical in some politicians in places like ireland, which have been a bit critical, and thats thats part of the explanation. No, certainly set the standard i think for for other politicians to to follow, but tim, i mean, why do you think oni barara was dismissed from a ministerial position then in the Spanish Government . Well, its not exactly related to her position on on palestine, but its not unrelated either, um, shes able to speak. Out so frankly and so tsly now on on palestine, lets say representing more of a uh humane position perhaps precisely because shes distancing herself from the rest of the factions in the the Left Coalition government uh which theyve actually exiteted now in the parliamentary uh configuration as well as obviously her losing her job in the ministry um but uh the rest of the spanish left sort of talks a good game on palestine but it seems slightly. Slow when it comes to taking action, mean they said they were going to, as was mentioned there, they said that they were going to stop arm sales immediately after in the after the current phase of the crisis began in october um, but it just turned out that in november they were still, they were still sending arms to israel, um, they that was accident, but uh, you can, you can interpret that any way you like, really, no, indeed, well, david, i mean, in view of spains criticism of the, design. This regime then i mean how do you see the um spains excuse me relationship with israel actually evolving . Well mean youve got to remember that under the fascist regime of Francisco Franco up until 1978 that there was no relationship with with israel and um then after after the fall of franco and the the introduction of of democracy in spain then what happened was there was a a Long Campaign by by israel to. Try and uh create relations and that was eventually in 1984, the relations were established under felipe gonzalez, the socialist leader, kind of like tony blair, i suppose you would say maybe. More left wing and uh and so there was a kind of increase in in their relationships, but then of course more recently weve seen the cooling of the relationships, now we have the uh israelies have withdrawn their ambassador from spain, theyre still diplomatic relations, they havent totally broken off diplomatin relations, but theyre much cooler now and and you know as this progresses i imagine they will get even cooler, but perhaps well look forward to spain being the first country in europe to to totally break off diplomatic relations with israel. Uh and not before time, no indeed, and and that would certainly be a an example to follow, i think, but tim, i mean, whats the broader Political Landscape landscape like in spain regarding support for for palestine, and and what actions if any have been taken by other spanish politicians and officials . Well, we had um, quite a good test of that this week, because podemos, the party that iona belara leads, brought a bill to parliament um proposing to break off relations with israel and to to completely stop um sales you know without exception um and all of the left parties voted for it in fact um so you know they are kind of um pinning their colors to the mast as it were um the um it didnt pass because the rightwing parties in in the Spanish Parliament voted against it the p which is their equivalent of the conservative party and vox which is a sort of um extreme right uh rump party, they they cynically voted against it, but even they have been forced to kind of speak out in favor of israeli restrained um so that shows that even the spanish right is probably an outlier uh within the the rightwing um political movements in the rest of the continent um thats theres historical reasons for that as as as was pointed out um and also so i think perhaps spains sort of liminal position within europe means that it traditionally its tried to maintain reasonable diplomatic relations with various other parts of the world, the arab world, um, almost as a diplomatic imperative really, so i think thats been a factor here as well, so david, i mean speaking up on your previous answer there, i mean whats shapes then spains sort of diplomatic relations with with this . And how would you say thats actually changed under Prime Minister sanchez . Well, i think its important to to to endorse that point thats just been made about the the liminal position of spain that its kind of in between worlds in some kind of sense, because if you remember what what happened with the americans attempts to create this uh yemeny Task Force Operation protect prosperity it was called of course and and what happened with that was that the us navy first of all said that that uh we did have enough ships to do this. But then spain and france and italy all withdrew from that and you you ended up with just america and the uk shells bombing yemen and and the other countries withdrawing so this part of the same kind of uh process now uh with the the sanchez government the the movement has been very much against israel and away from friendly relationshipships with israel as i said the they continue to have diplomatic relationships but the tendency is all the other way and you know really would be a great breakthrough for a country like spain to to finally break diplomatic relations. Yes, yes indeed. Well, were just going to watch our second report now about the response of spains leading politicians to the genocide in galsa, particularly the former social rights minister, oni barara, and then well come back to the discussion. Support for palestine among the spanish public remains comparatively stronger than in other major european nations. Spain only established diplomatic relations with israel in 1986 after facing a concerted Diplomatic Campaign by israels ministry of Foreign Affairs. The process was overseen by stalwarts of the spanish socialist workers party, which is the major party in spains current Coalition Government and is one of spains two largest parties. However, under the leadership of Prime MinisterPedro Sanchez, spain now has troubled diplomatic relations. With israel over its Genocidal Campaign in gaza. Sanchez has been supported by the king of spain felipe the si. King felipe is normally considered to be a conservative figure. However, he is called for a permanent cease fire in gaza and for maximum humanitarian access. In addition to supporting sanchez in his desire for spain to recognize a palestinian state. This is in star contrast to other major. European powers like germany and the united kingdom, which have not only provided diplomatic cover for israel, but have also been supplying the zinanis regime with weapons. One of the reasons. For spains more propalestinian stance is the lack of power of Israel Lobby Groups in the country. Most of spains major pro israel organizations are only around three decades old. One such group, the federation of jewish communities in spain was only established in 1993 and it does not quite enjoy the same kind of public influence as its british counterpart, the board of deputies of british jews, which was established in the 1700. Nevertheless, the israel lobby in spain has been successful using lawfair tactics to harass and shut down propalestine activities, taking individual politicians and local authorities to court under spains antidiscrimination laws. Once its group, acom or action and communication in the middle east, states that its objective is to reinforce relations between spain and israel, and that one way it does this is through legal action. Acom openly incites hatred of muslims. On its youtube channel, it shared a speech by far right politician alberto taradas, talking about socalled islamism and spreading zinus mantra about a clash of civilizations between east and west. The group also spreads israeli war propaganda. It shared debunked and baseless claims about ambulances in gaza being used to transport. Fighters and provided justification for israels targeting of medical facilities like alshifa hospital. Moreover, acom lists as its friends or the notorious Israel Lobby Groups like the adl and ap in the United States as well as bycom in the united kingdom, which have been at the forefront of efforts to silence criticism of the zionist war machine. Whilst ziness lobby groups in spain are on the margins, the threat they pose. Remains active. David, um, acoms support for islamophobic rhetoric, and its not unique to spain, is it . It certainly isnt. I mean, this is why we say that the zianists are key part of the spread of islamophobia in the west, not the only part, the main part of course is is the forces of the state, the police, the intelligence services, but the Zionist Movement has a specific component of islamiphobia to add when it was zionist of course. Invented the concept of islamic terrorism, the idea of the islamist, all these concepts came from zionist intellectuals, and of course the zionis themselves have pushed uh islamophobia through islamophobic think tanks, for example in the uk and in the us, and to some extent also uh its the case in spain through some the the new conservative and islamophobic think tanks that are there, now in spain of course there is an islamophobic party, the vox party was referred to a minute ago as a rump party and and uh this acom group is very quite close to to to volks, thats an indication really the kind of tradition of islamophobia which flows through the zines mov, which we also see in the spanish zinic movement, well tim, how significant do you think king felipes support has been in advancing, a more pro palestine stance in spain . Yes, he hes quite a meldy monarch, isnt he philip vi, i mean from a british perspective uh. Quite surprising to see a monarch, a constitutional monarch calling for the recognition of the state of palestine, um, but i think really again it that would take me back to the sort of broad consensus in spain about the necessity of of doing things like that, so its not a particularly controversial thing to to say or, its not unusual for him to make political uh comments, i dont whether there is also an ele