Spain turns back ship suspected of carrying arms to Israel

OVIEDO, Spain 

The Spanish government denied entry to a ship suspected of carrying weapons to Israel on Thursday evening, after significant pressure from pro-Palestinian activists and politicians.

The move came after members of Spain’s government, including the transport minister, said earlier on Thursday that the ship had permission to dock and all its documents were in order.

But after pressure from activists and legal action from the Podemos party, the ship, called Borkum, was eventually turned away. As of Friday morning, the ship was en route to Slovenia, according to Vessel Finder.

This is the first time Spain denied entry to a ship carrying weapons allegedly headed for Israel.

On Friday morning, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told broadcaster RTVE that it will become a “continuous policy” for Spain.

“We will not contribute to bringing more weapons to the Middle East. The Middle East doesn’t need more arms -- it needs peace,” he continued.

But Albares was also critical of the rift the ship opened up between Spain’s coalition partners — Sumar and the Socialist Party. Instead, he urged them to focus on peace.

Indeed, members of Spain’s junior coalition party Sumar openly criticized the government’s decision to allow the ship to dock without any inspection.

Socialist Transport Minister Oscar Puente said it was “irresponsible” of the left-wing politicians to make that accusation “without evidence” and assured journalists that the ship had all of its documents in order and was not carrying weapons to Israel.

Even on Friday morning, Puente shared a post by a Spanish journalist who said the ship was not carrying weapons to Israel because “it had munitions for Soviet weapons that Israel doesn’t use.”

On Thursday, members of the Podemos party announced they had lodged a complaint with Spain’s National Court to stop the Borkum from leaving the Cartegena port and inspect its cargo.

On Friday, Ione Belarra of the Podemos party insisted that turning the ship away from the port was “not a victory" in an interview with broadcaster RTVE.

She said the ship should have been brought to the port and inspected first.

“And if there was confirmation that the weapons were going to end up in Israel to commit genocide, the cargo should have been retained,” she said.

Even so, activists from the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine celebrated the role that social pressure had in forcing the government to make a move.

They held a protest against the ship in the Cartegena port on Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Irene Montero of Podemos posted on X that activists have detected three ships in three days suspected of carrying weapons to Israel.

“Is Spain a country of transit for the arms used in a genocide?” she asked.

Since shortly after Oct. 7, the Spanish government has effectively banned Spanish companies from exporting arms to Israel.