Pérez-Llorca later became an advisor for Kuwait Petroleum. Nevertheless, small steps were taken towards rapproachment, including informal contacts by Samuel Hadas, the Israeli representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization based in Madrid. Hadas, a member of the Israeli Labor Party, was responsible for the creation of a Spanish Friends of Israel association and a dialogue group that included several Spanish Socialist Workers Party members of parliament, such as Enrique Múgica Herzog, as well as members of the ruling party, UCD. With a view to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, President of the Government Felipe González, who had been elected on a Socialist platform three years earlier, sent a personal letter to secretary general of the Arab League, Chedli Klibi, on 25 April 1985, advising him of Spain's plans. Following Operation Wooden Leg, the Spanish Government issued a strong condemnation of the attack, putting a temporary hold to the recognition process. Further conversations with ambassadors from Arab states in Madrid followed in January of the next year, advising them of Spain's forthcoming plans. Spain and Israel established diplomatic relations on 17 January 1986. Samuel Hadas was named Israel Ambassador in Madrid. Spain had joined the European Economic Community on 1 January. Soon after, a representative office for the PLO opened in Madrid "as evidence of Spain traditional policy of friendship with the Palestinian people and as an instrument to achieve a lasting, just and global solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict". In 2000, Spain lifted its veto on Israel's admission to the Western European Group of the United Nations, on a basis of permanent renewal of temporary full membership, ending Israel's administrative limbo, as its membership in the Asian Group had been withheld due to the large majority of Muslim countries in the Asian block opposing. In October 2011, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, arrived in Israel for a two-day state visit to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and meet with local scientists. Many Israelis are Sephardi Jews, culturally associated with the Iberian Peninsula from where Jews were expelled in the late-fifteenth century. Many Israelis are also of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish extraction from before the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian peninsula. Some Israelis live in Spain today, and there is also a small contemporary Spanish Jewish community. Many Spanish people are also of converso or marrano origin, with a recent study estimating the figure to be as high as 20%. An Israeli newspaper, Maariv, noted that according to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's own admission, his family is of Jewish descent, probably from a family of marranos.