With cries of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will win” or “the murders of Israel, Europe sponsors”, thousands of people took to the streets of several Spanish cities to demand an end to the “genocide in Gaza” and that Spain “end all trade treaties with Israel. This Friday, a general strike was called in support of Palestine under the slogan “Let’s invest in life, not in weapons”. For the end of genocide and apartheid’ with more than 100 protest actions planned across the country. Today alone, Israel killed at least 25 people in Lebanon in another day of bombings against Hezbollah.
In the morning, it was the turn of the student movement in La Coruña, Oviedo, Bilbao, Valencia and a dozen other cities. Many of them were organized in front of university rectorates and in others, students walked the streets of municipalities, as in the case of Santiago de Compostela, which ended in front of the cathedral. In other municipalities, such as Ferrol, concentrations of workers from Navantia and Emafesa (Augas de Ferrol) took place.
In the case of Madrid, there was also a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid to ask the government not to sell more weapons to Israel. Several hundred citizens gathered, most of them students.
In the afternoon, it was the turn of the largest demonstration of the day of protest in the capital. Thousands of people gathered in a massive march that took to the streets of Madrid shouting “We want to ask Pedro Sánchez how many children they have to kill to end criminal Zionism.” The march, which is part of this Friday’s strike day against the genocide in Palestine, left Atocha towards Callao. Inform Ariadna Martinez.
“We decided to come here because as students, we come to denounce the loss of the intellectual heritage of Gaza. This year, there could not be a school year due to the massive death of children, students and teachers,” denounced Aya, a young student.
For his part, Fernando, 63, declared that the aim of his march was to “denounce the fact that the West has finally taken off its mask and that by being complicit, our governments also make us complicit.” “We demand that the Spanish government side with the truth. »
“We thought there would be a good response, but I think this exceeds all expectations because we haven’t seen a protest of this magnitude in Madrid for months.” Coral Latorre, spokesperson for the Students’ Union, positively assessed the march against the “genocide” in Israel which culminated in a one-day strike in support of the Palestinian people.
“There is a great desire to continue to fight in solidarity with the Palestinian people, but not just solidarity in the abstract, but also to say that this genocide could end immediately if all types of economic, political and diplomatic relations were broken with the Zionist State of Israel,” assessed Latorre.
As for Barcelona, at 6 p.m. the demonstration against the “genocide” in Palestine began, the largest to date due to this conflict in the Catalan capital. The demonstration took place within the framework of the state strike called to “distinguish companies complicit with Zionism” which have “blood on their hands”, as highlighted by Maurici Victoire, spokesperson for the CGT in Catalonia . Inform Sandra Vicente.
The march highlighted the responsibility of Israel, but also of companies and governments for not openly condemning what demonstrators called “aggression” and “genocide”. So much so that one of the most heard slogans was “Israel’s murders, Europe sponsors them”.
Those gathered took the opportunity to demand that the EU implement sanctions against Israel and to call on all governments and administrations to reduce their spending on military weapons. They also demanded the “demilitarization” of the Middle East. Overall, the organizers consider the day a success and insist on the need to “not stop talking about Palestine and not normalize the genocide”.
The demonstration was the culmination of a day of protest that began with 300 people blocking Barcelona’s Diagonal Avenue as part of the strike. The march progressed to the Israeli consulate, where demonstrators chanted the famous slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will win.”
Like Madrid or Barcelona, other large cities like Valencia or Granada have organized massive rallies to protest the Israeli attack on Gaza as one year of the offensive approaches. In the Valencian capital, for example, where the university camps in favor of Gaza began, the demonstration took place under the slogan “Let’s stop the genocide in Palestine. No to the arms trade.”
