hello, i'm chris williamson and you're watching palestine dc. we're the only weekly

tv show that's dedicated to investigating and exposing the israeli regime's global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. in this week's show we'll be exposing the activities of an israeli lobby group operating in spain calling itself action and communication on the middle east, which is usually referred to by its initials acom. on its linkedin page, acom describes itself as an independent organization that aims to reinforce the political. ship between spain and israel by working with governments, political parties, the media and civil society. has been peering behind veneer where she discovered rather different and sinister reality. as she'll explain in this report. the former social rights minister in spain, ioda is one of the few european politicians who has been vocal from the outset in criticizing israel's genocidal campaign. in gazza. while she was

still a minister in the spanish government, she took to the streets in the aftermath of 7th of october, denouncing israel's planned of genocide in razza, and calling for sanctions as well as a ban on arms cells to the zionist regime. belara 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 right-wing islamophobic israel. group which engages in lawfare and deformation tactics against supporters of palestine. the lobby group reported balara to the spanish prosecutor's office for incitement to hatred, claiming that she had abused her position and had exceeded her right to freedom of expression. of 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 seen shops and local authorities in spain boycotting the...

designist 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 balada's views are popular in spain, she lost her job in the spanish government following a reshuffle in late november 2023, although it's likely that her dismissal was influenced by other factors. the spanish prime 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 lobby's influence in spain has been less of 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 union foreign affairs chief joseph borell, who had a long career in spanish politics and who once volunteered on an israeli kebut recently criticized israel's allies for continuing to supply the zin. regime with weapons. despite this broader support for palestine and spain, barara has been unique in the strength of her criticism of israel and has been at the forefront of highlighting the genocidal character of the zionist onslaught on ghazza. joining me in the studio as usual is our resident expert david miller. david is academic and a former professor at bristol university and is now a non-resident senior research fellow at the center for islam and global affairs at istanbul's.

university, he's also a co-director 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 from madrid. tim is author and political campaigner. with a phd in philosophy, he's currently linguistics lecturer at madrid's 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, hasn't she? i wonder if you could just say a word or to about how that's been received by the spanish public and indeed the political establishment for that matter. thanks for um uh the invitation to speak, chris um... good evening, yes, the um uh, the reception she's had by the spanish political establishment has not been especially warm, um, although that's 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 of the

issue, um, she's not really speaking um, too far out of turn, because there's a lot of consensus for palestine amongst ordinary spanish people. um there was a poll done by yugov 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 david, i wonder what you would say then the sort of distinguishes spain from from other european countries particularly in relation to... public opinion and and indeed to government policy, so as we just heard there, yes, i mean public opinion is very strongly uh uh in favor of palestines and critical of zionism, but that's 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 anti-militarism has been very strongly anti warm movement against in relation to iraq was very strong, and of course we've seen cities like barcelona and others declare that they're going to boycott uh israel. so there's 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 f-25 parts going, or there's 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 the ordinance and the weaponry which is being used to kill children uh every day in gaza, so there's a sense really that that southern europe is more progressive than northern europe and in particular spain and public opinion there very strongly in favor of the

palestinians and that's 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 than some... policials in places like ireland which have been a bit critical and that's that's part of the explanation no we do but certainly set the standard i think for for other politicians to to follow but tim, i mean why do you think ioni belar was dismissed from a ministerial position then in the spanish government? well it's not exactly related to her position on on palestine but it's not unrelated either um she's able to speak out so frankly and so thursly. now on on palestine, let's say representing more of a uh, a humane position, perhaps precisely because she's distancing herself from the rest of the factions in the the left coalition government uh, which they've actually exited now in the parliamentary uh configuration as well as obviously her losing

her job in the ministry, um, but uh, the rest the spanish left sort of talks a good game on palestine, but it seems slightly slow when it comes to taking action, i 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, and they said that that was accident, but uh, you can, you can interpret that any way you like, really? no, indeed. well, david, i mean, you know, in view of spain's criticism of the, the zainish regime, then, i mean, how do you see? the um spain's excuse me, relationship with israel actually evolving, well i mean you've got to remember that uh that under the fascist regime of uh francisco franco up until 1978 that there was no relationship with with israel, no and then after after the fall of franco and the 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 1984 the relations were established under felipe gonzalez, the psa, the socialist leader, um, kind of like tony blair, i suppose you would say, maybe a little bit more left wing, and uh, but there was a kind of increase in in the relationships, but then of course more recently we've seen the cooling of the relationships, now we have the uh israels have withdrawn their ambassador from spain, the still diplomatic relations, they haven't totally broken off diplomatic relations, but they're much cooler now and and as this progresses i imagine they will get even cooler, but perhaps we'll 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, mean, what's 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 ona bads, 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 pinning their colors to the mask as it were um the um it didn't pass because the right wing parties in in the spanish parliament voted against it the pp which is their equivalent of the conservative party and 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 come speak out in favor of israeli restraint um so that shows that even the spanish right is probably an outlier uh within the the right-wing um political movements in the rest of the continent um that's there's historical reasons for that as as as was pointed out um and also i think perhaps spain's sort of limit. position within europe means that it traditionally it's 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 that's been a factor here as well, so david, i mean, speaking up on your previous answer there, i mean, what's shapes then spain's sort of diplomatic relations with with israel, and how would you say that's actually changed on? prime minister sanchez, well, i think it's important to to endorse that point that's just been made about the the liminal

position of spain that it's 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 and the say 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 relationsships with israel as i said they 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 the political relations, yes, yes, indeed, well, we're just going to watch our second report now about the

response of spain's leading politicians to the genocide in gaz, particularly the former social rights minister, oni barara, and then we'll come back to the discussion. support for palestine among the spanish public remains comparatively stronger than in other major european nations. spain only established diplomats. relations with israel in 1986 after facing a concerted diplomatic campaign by israel's ministry of foreign affairs. the process was overseen by stalwarts of the spanish socialist workers party, which is the major party in spain's current coalition governments and is one of spain's two largest parties. however, under the leadership of prime minister pedro sanchez, spain now has troubled diplomatic relations with israel over its genocidal pain in gaza. sanchez has been supported by the king of spain felipe vi. 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 spain's more pro-palestinian stance. is the lack of power of israel lobby groups in the country. most of spain's 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 1700s. nevertheless, the israel in spain has been successful using law tactics to harass and shut down pro-palestine activities, taken individual politicians and local authorities to court on the spain's anti-discrimination laws. once suits 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 does this is through legal action. i openly insights hatred of muslims. on its youtube channel, it shared a speech by far right politician alberto taradas, talking about so-called islamism and spreading zyanus 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 hamas fighters and provided justification. for israel's targeting of medical facilities like al-shifa hospital. moreover, acom lists as its friends or the notorious israel lobby groups, like the adl and apac in the united states as well as baicom in the united kingdom, which have been at the forefront of efforts to silence criticism of the zinis war machine. whilst zinis lobby groups in spain are on the margins, the threat they pose remains active. "david, um, acom's uh support for islamophobic rhetoric, it's not unique to spain, is it? it certainly isn't. i mean, this is why we say that the zionists are a 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 zin movement has a specific component of

islamophobia 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 zionists themselves have pushed uh islamophobia through islamophobic think tax, for example in the uk and in the us, and to some extent also uh it's the case in spain through some the the new conservative islamophobic think tanks that are there. now in spain of course there is an islamophobic party, the vox party, it was referred to a minute ago as a rump party and and uh this acom group is very quite close to to vox, that's an indication really the kind of... uh tradition of islamophobia which flaws through the zinic movement, which we also see in the spanish zinic movement. well, tim, how significant do you think king felipe's support has been in advancing a more pro palestine stance in spain? yes, he's he's quite a mouthy monarch,

isn't he philip vi? i mean, from a british perspective, uh, it's quite surprising to see a monarch, a constitution. calling for the recognition of the state of palestine. um, i, 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 it's not a particularly controversial thing to to say or, it's not unusual for him to make political uh comments. i don't know whether there is also an element of connection between the spanish crown and uh, royal families in in arab countries or anything like that. i mean, spain's former king juan carlos. just uh emigrated to the united arab emirates um retired and emigrated so um i don't whether that's you know representative of more a more personalist strategy in their foreign relations generally you know historically. david i mean what connections then are there between a.com and and other pro israel groups

uh is real lobby groups around the world and and what influence do you think uh they hab on global discourse about israel, well mean the the the designs coordinate with each other, big shock, the they all work together, they coordinate via tel aviv, they have common whatsapp groups to push particular narratives and you saw in on the the film the the the ecom attack, legal attack on on samy doon, palestinian solidarity organization, which of course is just an iteration in spain of a strategy which is adopted all through the world in the us. in the uk they attack pro palestine organizations, so yes, there are those kind of connections. acom advertises it its own website that it's connected to bycom, the uh the british organization, which is the main pr agency for. in the uk and of course to the adl, spy agency in in the us, to the american jewish committee and various other of the the lobby group, so it's not, it's not surprised they work together and coordinate directly with

the ministry of foreign affairs uh um in israel, so i think global level, what what impact does that have, well it has an impact in the sense that that they they are all pushing the same messages, they have they have what they call war rooms where they coordinate these messages and that that's the method by which they do this, these are... individual organizations in spain or the uk, this is a transnational zionist movement as as, i've been saying for a long time, yeah, well tim, i mean, what techniques then are are deployed by pro israel lobby groups in spain to manipulate public opinion and and policy decisions about palestine, well they've brought lawsuits against activists for quote unquote glorifying terrorism in public demonstration. uh in the speeches and public demonstrations, um, they threaten to take legal action against public institutions like the university of granada uh for for

publicly declaring their support for palestine, their institutional support for palestine. um, they petition um against um um anra and they petition the spanish government to prohibit pro- palestine demonstrations. so basically it's it as was mentioned before it's law fair um mix and where that doesn't work it's plain intimidation really if you were generous you'd call it campaigning but it's very aggressive campaigning to the point of intimidation really which i think is all they've got less got left because they've lost the rest of the argument you know yeah well well david i mean how does the um the you know the impact of uh of pro israel lobby groups in spain then you know differ. uh from other european countries? well, you can see from what we've been saying so far that they're weaker than than in other countries, they they haven't captured key uh uh processes of the state and like we have in

germany, in the uk, france to some some extent, are the tactics the same though, well the the tactics are are different in the sense that they they're not so embedded with the powerful right right, so they they so you see in the the spanish elites various different um statements, you know it's not just only balara, it's also the king and it's the... minister who are able to make very critical statements about about se far, yes, compared to other european leaders, but they have, so they have concentrated more the local level, they've they've gone after uh um cities and who have declared boycots, in the cases that tims has been talking about you legal action and they've been very successful in some of their legal actions with the collaboration of of judges who are evidently biased towards israel, but it's a lower level than in other european countries where where the designers have been able. to capture uh policy making and and key elements of the societies right? well uh finally and briefly tim because we've only got about a minute left, mean do you think it's likely that

spain will actually recognize a palestinian state then? um well suppose it's a bit like um the samuel beckit play waiting for goddo you know one assumes it will happen but one's not sure um mean i think of all the european countries if you had to put money a country to do it? um imminently it would be, it would be spain, but it's always inhibited uh by its relationship with the eu. spain is intimidated by the eu and wants to do it at an eu level, i think rather than just unilaterally, but if that doesn't work then maybe they'll maybe they'll do it, you never know, you never know you luck, well indeed yes, we never know our luck, but let's hope we are uh lucky um, but i'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there as the clocks beating us again, so thanks for watching and... thank you to our guest timothy appleton and of course our resident expert professor david miller. palestine declassified. we'll be back of course next week with more forensic investigations and analysis. in the meantime, you can follow the

show on facebook, twitter and telegram where we post regular clips and updates. you can also help us to counteract the disinformation pedaled by the corporate media about palestine and the resistance to zinis brutality, by showing today's program on your social media platforms. so until next time, this is chris williams for saying, bye for now. information about palestine abounds. on social networks, many times without context. they do not allow us to go deeper and understand all the dimensions of a

catastrophe. is dragging on for centuries. daniel hardway, chilean mayor of palestinian origin, opens a window to palestine to understand in depth the present cause of the palestinian people, exploring its history and future prospects. do not miss a window to palestine. in late 2023, south africa filed case at the international court of justice, icj over the israeli apath regime's genocidal war against palestinians in the besieged gaza strip. south africa stated that the telebav regime has failed to uphold its commitments under the 1940. eight

genocide convention. south africa filed the lossit against the israeli regime at the end of december, noting that israel's actions in gaza that started last october are genocideling character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the palestinian national, racial and ethnic group. we have a special guest to discuss the topic today. he's none other than south african ambassador to iran, his excellency dr. francis molloy. thank you, mr. ambassador for your time today. thank you very much for inviting me. it's a pleasure to be here.

the death troll in gaza rises to more than 31,000 as a us israel genocide rages, most of those killed are women and children. levi's resistance fighters target is really occupied territories with dozens of rockets. and retaliation for the killing of four members of one family, plus the us president's bit to build a port for gaza and distance himself from netanyahu are regarded as a white washing campaign.