With this decision, the country becomes the fifth to announce a similar stance after the Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland, and Ireland, and the first from the ‘Big Five’ group, which includes the UK, Germany, Italy, and France, and automatically qualifies for the final round of the competition, according to Western media. This decision comes amid ongoing controversy over Israel’s participation in ‘Eurovision,’ against the backdrop of the war, where several countries have asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the contest organizer, to exclude Israel from the 2025 edition.
The Spanish government had announced the cancellation of a massive contract worth 700 million euros with the Israeli company ‘Elbit Systems’ for supplying advanced artillery systems of the ‘PULS’ model. This decision marks the second deal canceled this month with Israeli companies, following the cancellation of a contract to purchase ‘Spike’ missiles from the ‘Rafael’ company worth 270 million euros, bringing the total value of canceled deals to about one billion euros, according to Israeli media.
The deal was signed in October 2023 as part of the Spanish ‘SILAM’ program, which aims to manufacture advanced rocket launchers locally. The delivery of launch platforms and training missiles was scheduled to begin in 2024, followed by live weapons in 2025. This system is considered one of the leading systems in the global market, but the cancellation of the deal represents a significant blow to military cooperation between Spain and Israel, amidst rising international criticism of the situation in the region.
Israel continues its war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, a war that has claimed the lives of about 64,000 Palestinians and injured about 163,000 people. It also conducts repeated airstrikes on several countries in the region, most notably Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Qatar, in addition to its 12-day war.
