Spain Secures Arms Deals with Israel Despite Government Pledges
(MENAFN) Spain has continued to engage in arms procurement from Israel, awarding or finalizing 40 contracts with Israeli companies since October 2023, despite previous government assurances to halt such purchases, a Spanish media outlet reported on Thursday.
This revelation follows news that Spanish police recently bought €6.6 million ($7.5 million) worth of ammunition from an Israeli company, contradicting the government's earlier promise to cancel that specific contract.
The purchase has led to a division within Spain's left-wing coalition government. The junior coalition partner, Sumar, condemned the deal as a “flagrant breach” of government commitments and demanded its “immediate rectification.”
According to El Diario, citing an upcoming report from the Delas Center for Peace Studies, the police contract is just a small part of a much larger issue. The report reveals that Spain has signed arms deals worth €1.04 billion with Israeli firms since Israel’s military action in Gaza began.
Notably, ten of the 40 contracts were signed after October 2024, the month Spain's Ministry of Defense claimed to have halted all military purchases from Israel. Additionally, nine contracts are still pending finalization, including major deals such as a €576 million acquisition of the SILAM rocket launcher system, based on Israeli company Elbit’s PULS technology, and a €237 million purchase of SPIKE missiles from PAP Tecnos, a Spanish subsidiary of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
The finalized deals reportedly include a range of military equipment, including ammunition, electronic warfare systems, ballistic plates, and projectile programming devices.
The Ministry of Defense defended the transactions, claiming that some of the programs involved are “non-substitutable,” a justification used to continue with these deals.
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