Israel's Foreign Ministry summoned the Spanish chargé d’affaires to be reprimanded due to the burning in effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the small town of El Burgo, Spain, on Sunday.
"The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government's systemic incitement," the Foreign Ministry said in a Saturday post on X/Twitter.
"And even now, the Spanish government remains silent," concluded the post, which included an apparent video of the event.
The incident in question was part of an annual event going back decades, with previous events involving the burning in effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, El Burgo Mayor Maria Dolores Narvaez told local media.
According to Narvaez, the seven-meter-tall effigy of Netanyahu had been filled with 14 kilograms of gunpowder before being ignited.
Spain's own Foreign Ministry responded to Israel's X/Twitter post, with a source saying to Reuters that the Spanish government "is committed to fighting against antisemitism and any form of hate or discrimination," adding, "we totally reject any insidious allegation which suggests the contrary."
The relationship between Israel and Spain has been strained in recent years due to the Gaza war, with Spain accusing Israel of international law violations and barring from its airspace and ports all vessels carrying weapons bound for Israel, a move classified by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar as antisemitic.
Spain expelled from US's CMCC in Kiryat Gat
Spain was expelled from the United States’ Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, the base helping implement Trump’s Gaza peace plan, due to the country's “obsessive anti-Israel bias,” according to a statement on Friday by Sa’ar.
The decision had been made “after Spain has chosen repeatedly to stand against Israel,” said Netanyahu.
“Spain has defamed our heroes, the soldiers of the IDF, the soldiers of the most moral army in the world,” Netanyahu added, noting he is “not willing to tolerate this hypocrisy and hostility."
"I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price,” Netanyahu said.
According to Sa'ar, the move was coordinated with the US, adding that Spain's “obsessive anti-Israel bias under [Prime Minister Pedro] Sánchez’s leadership is so severe that it has lost all capacity to play a constructive role in implementing [Trump’s] peace plan and the center operating under the framework of this plan.”
Reuters contributed to this report.