Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is"an anti-Semite and a liar" for calling for Israel's expulsion from international sporting competitions, just as Russia was expelled after its invasion of Ukraine.

This was stated by Gideon Saar in a message on social media, in which he reacted to statements made by the leader of the Executive and Secretary General of the Socialists, Pedro Sánchez, during the meeting held today with his parliamentary group in the Congress of Deputies.

There, Sánchez defended the expulsion of Israel from international sporting competitions, just as was done with the Russian Federation after the invasion of Ukraine."Until the barbarity stops, neither Russia nor Israel should be in any more international competitions," Sánchez stressed, in response to the controversy that arose after he called yesterday for demonstrations against the presence of an Israeli team in La Vuelta ciclismo, and after an invasion of the route prevented the celebration in Madrid of the final stage of the competition, by protesters denouncing the offensive in Gaza.

Saar accused Sánchez of being"an anti-Semite and a liar," and wondered whether "Israel invaded Gaza on October 7 or whether it was the terrorist state Hamas that invaded Israel" to commit "the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust."