An investigation by the Delàs Centre for Peace has identified over €1 billion in weapons purchases made by the Spanish government from Israel since the Zionist state launched its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza last October.

It is another devastating exposure of the imperialist militarism and support for genocide of the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Sumar government, which had denied that it was aiding Israel. It also exposes the pseudo-left Podemos party, which left the PSOE-Sumar government last December cynically claiming this would pressure the government to oppose the Gaza genocide.

Although there are no official statistics on arms imports, the Delàs Centre publishes a list of defense material awards to Israeli companies. It includes, among others, the supply of 168 Spike rocket launcher systems for €237.5 million or POD designators for aerial combat systems for €207.4 million. Additionally, a contract for the manufacturing in Spain with an Israeli technological partner (Elbit) of the High Mobility Rocket Launcher System (SILAM) for €576.4 million, in direct collaboration with the Zionist state for the production of weaponry.

Significantly, Israel sells all this weaponry under the marketing slogan “combat-tested.” The label means it has been used against Palestinians, making it more attractive to imperialist armies like that of Spain. Furthermore, these arms purchases allow Israel to cut its production costs, as the price per unit manufactured becomes cheaper.

The report also indicates that the Spanish government sold ammunition worth €987,000 to Israel in November 2023, followed by an additional batch of munitions and projectiles worth €125,240 in December. Moreover, between October 2023 and February 2024, Spain sold armored vehicles worth €714,680, which were theoretically intended for re-export to the Philippines.

The report highlights that “Despite the extreme severity of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, military relations between Spain and Israel have not been substantially altered,” despite the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza. One of the authors, Eduardo Melero, points out that “It is evident that the protection of human rights is not on the government’s agenda.”

Beyond the arms trade investigated by the Delàs Centre, Spain’s collaboration with Israel remains unchanged in many other areas. These include awarding contracts and services by the Spanish army and security forces to Israeli companies, collaboration between Spanish and Israeli companies to access other markets, cooperation between public universities, companies, and joint work on intelligence and military matters.

Amid mass opposition to the genocide in Spain and across Europe, the PSOE-Sumar government has tried all means to hide its active collaboration with Israel and the genocide in Gaza. Their lies and maneuvers, however, are falling apart.

On April 9, when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared that “since October 7, Spain has not engaged in any arms trade operations with Israel, none,” the pro-PSOE newspaper El País quoted statements from a high-ranking official acknowledging that the purchases of Israeli arms were never suspended. The official said that doing so “would be like shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Arms trades with Israel expose the fraudulent character of the PSOE-Sumar government’s verbal recognition of a nonexistent Palestinian state on May 28. It was nothing more than a propaganda maneuver without any practical implications. PSOE and Sumar aimed to appear as though they were seeking peace, thereby concealing their collaboration with the genocide in Palestine as well as their support with NATO’s imperialist offensive in the Middle East and the war against Russia in Ukraine.

Delàs researchers also indicate that the PSOE government, then allied to Podemos, sold arms to the far-right Ukraine regime worth €309.8 million in 2022, primarily ammunition, projectiles, bombs, and missiles. In the first half of 2023, material worth €102.7 million was exported to Ukraine.

The publication of this report coincided with President Pedro Sánchez’s participation in the NATO summit in Washington, which sets into motion a new and dangerous escalation of the war against nuclear-armed Russia.

Aware of the exposure of his military collaboration with Israel, Sánchez attempted a new maneuver to conceal his blood-stained hands in Ukraine and Palestine. He cynically declared: “If we demand respect for international law in Ukraine, we must also demand respect for it in Gaza. We have always maintained that our strength lies in our unity. In a globalized world, that unity must be accompanied by coherence. We cannot be accused of applying a double standard that would weaken our support for Ukraine.”

Simultaneously, Sánchez’s partners from Sumar tried to mask their own role. With brazen cynicism, they demanded explanations from their own government for the purchase of military equipment from Israel, pointing out “serious contradictions” between the explanations of arms sales to Israel and independent external reports.

In reality, the contradiction lies in demanding “explanations” from a government of which they are part. In reality, all decisions to purchase arms from Israel were approved by a Council of Ministers—the highest body of the Spanish executive—where they have five members.

This well-worn, pseudo-left tactic of verbally criticizing their own government was employed by Podemos for four years, as it oversaw mass COVID-19 infections while distributing billions of euros in EU bailout funds to the banks and corporations. They attacked workers through labor and pension reforms and exacerbated poverty amid surging global inflation. Podemos repressed wage struggles across Spain, deploying thousands of police to assault striking metalworkers in Cádiz and a nationwide truckers’ strike in 2022.

Sumar also sought to divert attention by joining a proposal launched to the government by their nationalist partners and Podemos to demand a law endorsing an arms embargo on Israel. This is another empty gesture: the leaders of Podemos and Sumar know that the right and far-right parties, PP and VOX, will join the PSOE to block such a law in parliament.

If those votes are not enough, PSOE, PP, and VOX can also count on some Sumar deputies joining them, as Agustín Santos Maraver did. Maraver, a former UN diplomat who was Sumar’s number two in the last elections, opposed the breaking diplomatic relations with the Israeli government last February.

Podemos’ actions are not fundamentally different from those of Sumar. Its leaders also formally criticize the genocide, most recently by their leader Ione Belarra. After the sale of arms to Israel became known, she said: “I have no words to express the shame I feel about the hypocrisy of the Spanish government. Tricky measures during the election campaign, while behind the scenes they have been awarding contracts worth 1 billion euros to Israeli arms companies since October. Not with my silence.”

However, Dèlas report shows that part of those arms-purchase agreements with Israel, such as the acquisition of Spike missiles, were made while she was a minister, during which she maintained absolute silence.

While she was in government from 2020 and December 2023, Podemos consistently approved the arms trade with Israel and collaboration with the Zionist regime. Podemos also supported NATO’s entire imperialist war agenda, voting for arms sales to Ukraine and the deployment of soldiers and warships on the periphery of Russia.

Podemos and Sumar are parties of imperialist war that have unreservedly supported war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza, not only through arms sales but also by creating illusions that things can be changed by pressuring the government. No hope can be placed in these imperialist parties tied to the capitalist establishment. The only way to stop the genocide in Gaza is the development of an international workers’ movement against the true cause of war, which is the profit-driven capitalist system.