Israel revels in Spain's migrant crisis while embarrassing ally Morocco

Israeli political leaders have mocked and exploited the migration crisis engulfing Morocco, an Israeli ally, and Spain, whose relations with Israel have sharply deteriorated.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote on X last week with barely concealed glee: "Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy."

Spain did not declare a state of emergency in Ceuta.

Danon's real grievance appears to be Madrid's forceful and consistent condemnation of Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, along with its refusal to back the US and Israel in their war against Iran.

"The involvement of official Israeli channels and associated social media accounts in amplifying anti-Spanish rhetoric in the wake of the Ceuta crisis seeks to undermine Spanish strategic positions in the Middle East and North Africa region," Denis Cenusa, a geopolitical analyst and fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told Middle East Eye.

"This constitutes clear retaliation for Spain's firm stance on the Palestinian cause and the joint US-Israeli attacks against Iran," he added.

More than 60,000 Moroccan migrants attempted to cross from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

At least 70 drowned or were crushed in the attempt, a number expected to rise.

'Why did they open the doors'

Among the dead was Moroccan footballer Faten Ben Omar El Azizi, who played for Moghreb Atletico Tetuan.

"The youth are lost… Who opened the door the first time? Why did they open it so that our children could be killed?" her mother said in a video published by Al Ayoum 24, shortly before Faten was buried in a Tetouan cemetery.

Beyond the grief inflicted on her family, El Azizi's death exposed an uncomfortable truth about the country she represented.

Morocco has emerged as something of a footballing powerhouse in recent years: its men's national team ranks sixth in the world, and the state has poured millions of dollars into developing the women's game.

El Azizi belonged to the generation that investment was supposed to benefit.

That investment into the country's human capital looks harder to square with what happened next.

According to several reports, the Moroccan state, headed by King Mohammed VI, opened the border gates into Ceuta, known in Morocco as Sabtah, last Thursday.

The message to many Moroccans was unmistakable that the route out of the country and into Spanish territory was open.

Madrid has so far avoided publicly blaming Rabat, but a source close to Spain's foreign ministry told MEE that officials privately believe the Moroccan state deliberately orchestrated the crisis.

Spanish authorities received intelligence about a possible surge in crossings into Ceuta and Melilla ahead of Morocco's Throne Day but failed to act, the Spanish outlet The Objective reported on Saturday.

Military and civilian intelligence sources told the outlet that officials repeatedly disregarded warnings, including alerts issued only days before the mass movement began.

Observers had already recorded an unusual influx of buses into Fnideq, the Moroccan town closest to Ceuta, before thousands of people converged on the border and crossed into the enclave.

'Spain will pay a price'

What Morocco has actually gained from all this remains unclear, beyond politically wounding Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose relationship with Washington has also deteriorated.

Sanchez may well have believed he'd secured lasting peace with Rabat after a diplomatic rupture that ran from December 2020 to March 2022.

In March 2022 he wrote to Mohammed VI endorsing Morocco's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, a major shift in Spain's position on the decades-old dispute.

A year later he helped bring Morocco into the joint Spanish-Portuguese bid to host the 2030 World Cup, and let the king unveil Morocco's inclusion through his own minister, Chakib Benmoussa. The alliance appears to have been jeopardised by Morocco for reasons no one has yet explained.

Before many of the bodies had even been recovered from the sea, Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, offered his "congratulations" to Sanchez "for his profound commitment to welcoming immigration and 'human diversity'."

He added: "As someone who demonstrates great concern for Hamas and the residents of Gaza, I call on you to translate words into actions: open the doors of Spain and grant refuge to the residents of Gaza who seek to emigrate."

The intervention wasn't aimed at Spain alone. By turning dead Moroccans into ammunition against Madrid, Israeli officials also humiliated a government that normalised ties with Israel on 22 December 2020 and has treated that relationship as a source of diplomatic leverage ever since.

Israel and the US have both started questioning Spain's hold over Ceuta and Melilla altogether.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, accused Sanchez's government of waging a "diplomatic war" and warned it would not be allowed to continue "without paying an immediate price."

"Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us," he said.

Many analysts now suspect this was that price.

"The Israeli ambassador to the UN and unofficial accounts on X have been amplifying anti-colonial rhetoric directed against Spain. Their emergence coincided with the height of the crisis, which could indicate a degree of coordination," geopolitical analyst Cenusa said.

In Washington, a House Appropriations Committee report published on 30 April described Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish-controlled cities "located in Moroccan territory" and urged the secretary of state to push negotiations over their status.

The wording appeared only in a report attached to the bill, not the bill itself, but it read as a signal to Spain, a Nato member. The House passed the legislation on 15 July; the Senate has not, and the president has not signed it.

No hard evidence has emerged that Israel, the US and Morocco coordinated the crisis. However, with Israeli leaders openly gloating on social media, at least one member of Sanchez’s government has entertained the possibility.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente shared a post stating: "Some in Washington, Tel Aviv, and Rabat... wanted images of our security forces and armed forces machine-gunning children on the beach."