Spain imposes broad trade restrictions on Israeli goods, raising concerns of wider EU boycott

Spain launched a blockade last week on Israeli products from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem, marking the largest state-level embargo against Israel since the now largely defunct Arab League boycott.

The Spanish trade restrictions are viewed as a “symbolic message” and will not likely have any significant impact on Israel’s economy or $850 million in exports to Spain. The vast majority of Israeli exports hail from companies located within the so-called green line that separates Israel from Judea and Samaria. However, there are concerns in Israel that Spain ultimately seeks to trigger wider-scale European Union trade restrictions against Israel.

Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, director of the Israel-Europe Relations Program at the Mitvim Institute and a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s European Forum, expressed concerns about the Spanish trade restrictions against Israel.

“When a country of considerable size like Spain advances a move like this, it gives backing to smaller states to follow,” Sion-Tzidkiyahu explained.

“This is sending a strong political message that others are seeing,” she added.

“If other countries follow, they could form a group that would protect them from Israeli retaliation,” Sion-Tzidkiyahu warned. “That would be very challenging.”

Spain has emerged as one of Israel’s more outspoken critics within the European Union. Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, Spain’s left-leaning government has adopted increasingly critical rhetoric toward Israel.

In May 2025, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez became the first leading Western leader to publicly accuse Israel of being a “genocidal state.”

“We don’t trade with a genocidal state. We don’t. I believe I explained from this platform the other day what we’re talking about, when some statements were made that weren’t true,” Sánchez stated during a debate in the Spanish Parliament.

In September, the Spanish prime minister announced sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel, declaring that the aim was to “stop the genocide in Gaza, pursue its perpetrators, and support the Palestinian population.” The Spanish legal action against Israeli defense companies also included “dual use” technologies.

However, Madrid made exceptions in cases of “national interest.” The Spanish government consequently announced on Tuesday that the European aviation giant Airbus would be permitted to continue importing crucial technologies from Israel.

“The inability to maintain this trade with Israel would seriously jeopardize the continuity of these projects in Spain, which would have an industrial, economic, employment and technological impact of such magnitude that it would affect strategic autonomy and general national interests,” the Spanish government announced at a Council of Ministers meeting.

Despite some exceptions, Spain has become the second European Union member state to ban products from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and largely boycott military trade with Israel. In August, Slovenia became the first EU member state to boycott Israeli products from Judea and Samaria and oppose any weapons trade with Jerusalem. However, Slovenia is a tiny country and its trade with Israel is minimal. By contrast, Spain is one of the largest and most influential states in the EU.

Relations between Madrid and Jerusalem have deteriorated sharply since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel. The Spanish government has largely ignored the threats against Israel and systematically condemned Israel for defending itself.

In May 2024, Spain, Ireland, and Norway unilaterally recognized a “Palestinian state.” Israel strongly opposed the move, with officials in Jerusalem accusing the three countries of rewarding the Oct. 7 attack, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 people were kidnapped from southern Israel.