Sira Rego speaks in Madrid, July 19, 2023. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images)

(JTA) — A Spanish politician who said that Palestinians have “the right to resist after decades of occupation” on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, was named Spain’s minister of children and youth on Monday.

Sira Rego, who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019, has a Palestinian father who lives in the West Bank. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, she has since Oct. 7 mostly posted and reposted content from others on the Israel-Hamas war, including graphic videos from the aftermath of bombings.

When Israel’s embassy in Madrid published a statement on Oct. 16 criticizing “some members of the Spanish government” for their comments on the war, Rego wrote: “Nobody here has defended Hamas. You have been exterminating a people for 75 years.” She also reposted tweets that said the “entire Israeli diplomatic delegation must be expelled from the Spanish State” and called Israel “undemocratic and corrupt.”

Rego, 50, is a member of the left-wing United Left party, and her cabinet position is new. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been locked in months of negotiations with various parties to form a governing parliamentary coalition, which will likely include multiple left-wing parties and, controversially, separatist Catalan factions.

Ione Belarra, former acting social rights minister who last month had called to “urgently suspend diplomatic relations with the state of Israel,” lost her post on Monday. Jose Manuel Albares, who called Israel’s Oct. 16 statement an “unfriendly gesture,” retained his position.

Multiple Spanish synagogues have been hit with graffiti tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Madrid’s main synagogue in the heart of the Chamberí district was defaced with graffiti that read “Free Palestine” next to a crossed-out Star of David the day after the Oct. 7 attacks.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount