The Israeli Foreign Ministry considers it “unacceptable” that a democratic society “allows the glorification of terrorism” and that Spain has become “a paradise for sowing hatred and inciting the destruction” of Israel, while the embassy also rejected that this “‘apologia for terrorism'” is permitted.
This was stated after the demonstrations which took place this weekend in several Spanish cities – and around the world – to demand an end to the massacre in Gaza, which has already left 42,000 dead. Madrid, which brought together 20,000 people on Saturday according to the organizers – no more than 5,000 according to the government delegation – hosted a new demonstration this Sunday, smaller in number, with nearly half a thousand participants.
In both cases, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and that country’s embassy censored through their profiles on the social network X that the march was promoted by several pro-Palestinian associations.
The largest demonstration this Sunday took place in Barcelona, where thousands of people – 4,500 according to the Urban Guard and 30,000 according to the organization – demanded that the “genocide” in Palestine stop and demanded that the government break relations with Israel and do not sell it weapons. The demonstrators, many of whom carried Palestinian flags or wore the traditional kufiya headscarf, chanted slogans such as “Boycott Israel”, “Where are the sanctions against Israel, we don’t see them”, “Israel’s killings, the Europe sponsors”, “Generalitat, prou complicity” or “It’s not a war, it’s a genocide”.
Demonstrations in defense of Palestine also took place in Malaga, Bilbao, Gijón, Santiago de Compostela and Palma de Mallorca.
Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso spoke about the conflict in Gaza, saying it is “perverse and unfair” to ask Israel “to allow itself to be annihilated” and not respond to terrorist attacks.
For her part, the second vice-president of the government, Yolanda Díaz, of Sumar, asked the international community to impose “now the maximum of sanctions” because “there is no time to lose” after the latest attacks in Lebanon.
“The Netanyahu regime continues its campaign of systematic violation of international law: an invasion in the north, a genocide in the south,” he lamented in a message on the social network X.
This demand was joined by Podemos leader Ione Belarra, who stressed that “democrats around the world must stop the genocidal state and get the elites of Europe and the United States to respond by supporting it.”
