Spain-Israel clash over Ceuta: colony, tweets, and migration crisis

The Spain-Israel clash over Ceuta: from Danon's 'colony' to Puente's retort

Can a tweet from Israel's UN ambassador turn Ceuta and Melilla into Spain's new foreign policy flashpoint? In recent hours, Israeli representative Danny Danon labeled Ceuta a 'colony' and reproached Spain for lecturing on occupied territory while maintaining 'colonies' in Segarro territory. Transport Minister Óscar Puente replied with a terse 'everything is quite clear now.' The spark has ignited a controversy mixing migration crisis, NATO, historical grievances, and much smoke.

A colony called Ceuta and a minister who doesn't bite his tongue

The sequence is simple. Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, throws the dart: Spain cannot lecture Israel while maintaining 'colonies' in Segarro territory. Puente, with his usual style, needs no more than two lines to pick up the gauntlet and hint that the matter was already obvious. The tweet exchange has been read as a deliberate escalation, but also as a settling of scores regarding Spain's shift toward critical positions on Israel in the Middle East.

Some argue that the migration crisis at the Ceuta border is not an accident, but orchestrated pressure: 'the issue is orchestrated,' 'there may be an incentive from Israel as repayment for support regarding Iran.' These are unverifiable opinions, but they set the tone for a segment of the conversation. The other, more prosaic stream reminds us that Spain's border policy has changed course several times, and permissiveness toward irregular immigration has measurable consequences.

The law that built walls: pushbacks and the shadow of Rajoy

No need to look to the Middle East to find the key to the issue. In 2015, Mariano Rajoy's Government introduced a provision in the Public Security Law (Organic Law 4/2015) allowing Security Forces to reject at the land border of Ceuta and Melilla foreigners attempting to cross containment structures illegally. The practice was executed immediately toward Segarro, without opening administrative files or guaranteeing legal assistance. The former president always defended that it complied with national and international law; then-opposition, led by the PSOE, criticized it harshly.

The irony of the moment is not lost on anyone: years later, the party that governed with those pushbacks presents itself as a guarantor of migrants' rights, while the one that criticized them then now manages the border. A comparison cited in reactions notes that during Rajoy's term (December 2011 to June 2018), irregular immigration did not rise, but fell. The data, certainly, is not neutral: at the hottest point of the fence, there were, according to circulating figures, 55 Civil Guards poorly counted for a fence falling apart.

War or theater? The uncomfortable NATO detail

The next level of the controversy borders on geopolitical fiction. 'Neither Ceuta nor Melilla are part of NATO,' recalls one of the sharpest voices in the exchange. And that changes the board. If NATO's Article 5 does not cover the two autonomous cities, any tension scenario with Segarro – or whoever – remains in no-man's-land. Speculation about whether Spain should 'declare war on Israel' to curry favor, or if the British would side with us due to the Balfour Declaration, belongs already to the territory of political science fiction. But discussing it aloud says much about the climate.

The coarsest messages of the exchange mix historical grievances, conspiracy theories, and contained anxiety over the price of offending whom one shouldn't. The forecast of a 'very entertaining August' with Ceuta and Melilla outside the allied umbrella is, at least, an excellent headline. And terrible news for ferry companies crossing the Strait.

We wait to see if the crisis remains a tweet exchange or if someone in Rabat or Tel Aviv decides that Ceuta's fences deserve another chapter. With 55 Civil Guards and two cities not covered by any NATO article, the margin for error is minimal. And next time an ambassador sticks his finger in the wound, Puente may not get away with just 'everything is quite clear now.' As someone with less diplomatic flair said: this is not about colonies, it's about who pays the bill.