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Spain's PM Wants Israel Out of International Cultural Events over Gaza War

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, China April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, China April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Spain's PM Wants Israel Out of International Cultural Events over Gaza War

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, China April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, China April 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on Monday for Israel's exclusion from international cultural events such as the Eurovision song contest over its military campaign in Gaza, just as Russia was barred after its invasion of Ukraine.

"We cannot allow double standards, not even in culture," Sanchez, a Socialist and long-time critic of Israeli policies in occupied Palestinian territory, told a conference in Madrid.

"I believe that no one was shocked three years ago when Russia was asked to withdraw from international competitions after it invaded Ukraine and not participate, for example, at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either," he said.

Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sanchez's remarks.

Sanchez called on artists to stand up for threatened values such as democracy and peace, criticizing those who defend "a bland, silent, equidistant cultural sector".

Eurovision, which stresses its political neutrality, faced controversy again during this month's finals in Basel, Switzerland, won by Austrian singer JJ, while Israel's Yuval Raphael emerged as the winner of the televote.

Pro-Palestinian groups had urged the European Broadcasting Union to exclude Israel over the war in Gaza. More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health officials, in Israel's offensive since a cross-border Hamas attack in October 2023 that killed around 1,200 people.

Israel's declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas. Despite international pressure to end the hostilities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would take control of the whole of the Gaza Strip.

A year ago, Spain, along with Norway and Ireland, formally recognized a unified Palestinian state ruled by the Palestinian Authority and with East Jerusalem as its capital - a decision Israel has condemned as bolstering Hamas.

Last October, Sanchez urged the European Union and wider international community to stop selling weapons to Israel, as Spain did in 2023.

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‘Anything Goes’: Yoshitomo Nara on His Creative Process as London Exhibition Opens

Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara speaks during an interview at the largest European retrospective of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London, Britain, June 9, 2025. (Reuters)
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara speaks during an interview at the largest European retrospective of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London, Britain, June 9, 2025. (Reuters)
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‘Anything Goes’: Yoshitomo Nara on His Creative Process as London Exhibition Opens

Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara speaks during an interview at the largest European retrospective of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London, Britain, June 9, 2025. (Reuters)
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara speaks during an interview at the largest European retrospective of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London, Britain, June 9, 2025. (Reuters)

Artworks by Yoshitomo Nara go on display in London this week in what organizers say is the largest European retrospective of the Japanese artist.

The show, running at the Hayward Gallery by the River Thames, features more than 150 works - drawings, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and installations - nodding to the longtime influences of Nara's works including music, nature, the importance of home and the peace movement.

"This is about 40 years' worth of my work," Nara told Reuters at a press preview on Monday.

"When I look at my work, I don't think what I'm trying to say has actually changed in that time. Whatever period I look at reflects a part of myself, which is why this exhibition is not done chronologically."

Nara, 65, is best known for his portraits of child-like characters with big gazing eyes.

"I think all the pictures I've created are like my reflections," he said when asked about them.

On display are plenty of those kinds of paintings and drawings as well as sculptures.

"Anything goes," says Nara, who was born in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan and lived in Germany early in his career before moving back home, said of his creative process.

"I don't think about what I'm doing, but when I've done something good, I can feel the reason behind it almost like a kind of hindsight."

The show is an expanded version of a touring exhibition previously put on at the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden.

"What’s quite interesting, I think, for audiences in London and in Europe overall (is)... we don't actually get to see Nara’s work in person that often," exhibition curator Yung Ma said.

"We’ve all seen his paintings and drawings on our devices...but I think all these kind of images, they don't do the works justice. So it's actually quite important to come and see because you can actually then understand (that)... he’s a really good painter...but you can actually really see the texture of the works and the colors and the layering of the paint."

The exhibition runs from June 10 to August 31.

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