Spain Cancels €6.6m Ammunition Order From Israeli Firm IMI Systems After Coalition Outcry

Spain has scrapped a €6.6m (£5.7m) order for millions of bullets from an Israeli company after junior partners in its coalition government denounced the deal as a “flagrant breach” of the coalition agreement. The coalition allies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the purchase jeopardised the country’s sustained efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza.

Sánchez, a socialist, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza. He has questioned whether Israel is following international humanitarian law and has called the number of Palestinian deaths “truly unbearable.” The source reports that his rhetoric has been reinforced by Spain’s decision last year to formally recognise a Palestinian state. It also notes the government’s commitment to neither buy weapons from nor sell weapons to Israel since the war in Gaza began with Hamas’s attacks on October 7, 2023.

On Wednesday, it emerged that Spain’s interior ministry wanted the purchase of 15.3m rounds of 9mm ammunition from the Israeli company IMI Systems to go ahead. According to the source, the ministry said the contract was too far advanced and too expensive to cancel. It also said that cancelling would leave the Guardia Civil police force without the bullets it needed to fulfil its duties.

News that the contract was proceeding drew a furious response from Sumar, a leftwing platform founded by Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s labour minister and one of the country’s three deputy prime ministers. Sumar called for the immediate cancellation of the contract. The leader of the platform’s United Left group said he and his colleagues would not tolerate “any part of the executive financing a genocidal state.” The source notes that Israel denies allegations of genocide, which are being reviewed by the International Court of Justice in a case first brought by South Africa. Weighing contested allegations through a fair process reflects the value of truth and fairness (Proverbs 18:17).

The arms deal also added to existing tension between the socialists and Sumar, who were already divided over Sánchez’s plans to invest €10.5bn so that Spain can reach its long-delayed Nato commitment of spending 2% of its GDP on defence. Díaz’s platform has described that move as “incoherent” and “absolutely exorbitant.”

On Thursday morning, the offices of Sánchez and Díaz said the contract would be unilaterally cancelled and that an import licence for the ammunition would be denied. Announcing the scrapping of the deal, the government said “all paths of negotiation” had been exhausted over the issue and that legal advice was being sought.

Government sources said: “The parties that make up the progressive coalition government are firmly committed to the Palestinian cause and to peace in the Middle East. That is why Spain will neither buy arms from, nor sell arms to, Israeli companies.” The sources added that any unfulfilled arms orders from Israel placed before October 7, 2023, would not proceed.

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