The greatest protests in Spain from the beginning of the massacre in Gaza take a crowd to the streets | Spain

“I sympathize with each of the mothers who has lost his murdered son in a fucking bombing. It is terrible,” Tais says while moving between a flood of thousands of protesters of Valencia, Palestinian handkerchief around her neck and carrying a lump that represents a boy killed in Gaza. “I ask the government for all kinds of relations with Israel and the Community of Madrid that ceases to say nonsense and prohibit the Palestine flag in schools, which respects people who support Gaza,” says Iván Casado, 37 -year -old audiovisual technician, during the massive protest in Madrid. Those of Tais and Iván are only two among the tens of thousands of voices that were heard this Saturday in more than 70 cities in Spain – from Barcelona to Madrid, from Seville to Valladolid, from Pamplona to Logroño -, on a day in which the rejection of the massacre of the army of Israel in Gaza dyed the streets of green, white, black and red, the colors of the Palestinian flag Unpublished since Israel began its military response to Hamas’s attacks almost two years ago.

The word common to all manifestations, convened by support groups to Palestine, was “genocide”, which resonated as a massive accusation against the Israel government, accompanied by samples of support to the members of the Global Sumud Flotilla arrested and demanding greater hardness in pressure measures against Benjamin Netanyahu. Spain is not an island in this hatching. This Saturday there were massive demonstrations of support to Palestine in Rome, London, Paris and Lisbon, among other European cities. The day in Europe leaves the image of a society in which there is at least one sector indifferent to suffering in Gaza and determined to demand action to put an end as soon as possible.

In Madrid, a crowd joined the demonstration, which left from the Atocha station at 6:00 p.m. “Let’s make noise and find that we are really an injustice what is happening in Gaza,” says Celia Balandín, one of the many young faces in the protest, which according to the convening entities achieved the response of 500,000 people, a figure that the Government delegation reduced to just under 100,000. “That they stop massacrating, allow the food to enter and recognize the Palestinian state,” says Aixa Bulaizh, 71. Beside him, Paloma Fernández, 67, is happy to see so many young people. He says that he participates in the acts in solidarity with Gaza for two years and that this march, “without a doubt, is the most massive.”

Although the prominence was of the crowd, the voices of the parties to the left of the PSOE also made themselves heard. Lara Hernández, Summar Movement Coordinator, integrated training in the Government, told the parties that not supporting the validation in the Congress of Royal Decree for the embargo of Arms to Israel – one of the most listened demands, together with the end of relations with Israel – would be to put “next to the genocides” and “the barbarism.” The leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, who usually presents to the government as a warm with Netanyahu, abounded in that line by demanding that he breaks “once and for all” diplomatic, political and economic relations with Israel.

In Barcelona, ​​tens of thousands of protesters of all ages toured the city center for almost three hours. There were 70,000, according to the Urban Guard; 300,000, according to the convening organizations. It was a mostly peaceful demonstration, but that resulted in a handful of vandalism incidents against stores indicated as “collaborators” with the Israeli government such as Zara, Banco Santander or Starbucks. In the manifesto, read in the ARC of Triomf, the convening entities showed their disagreement with the plan proposed by the US president, Donald Trump, and that Hamas has partially accepted. “The complicit states of the Global North, including Spain, have decided to assume the legalization of a genocide,” said the manifesto.

The day reflected the transversality of the rejection of the massacre in Gaza. To calibrate the protest dimension, the last two independence concentrations for the Diada in Barcelona brought together 60,000 and 25,000 people, according to the Urban Guard. Families, young people, sports entities and older adult groups were mixed throughout the tour. Banners like “How many children do you have to die to open your eyes?” They lived with some more political message such as “more watermelon, less meloni.” The message of the attendees went beyond the idea under which the march was convened: the request to launch a general boycott of Israel. “We ask institutions why there are still relations with a genocidal state,” said Samson Estepé, spokesman for Prou ​​complicitat amb Israel (no more complicity with Israel, in Catalan).

The PSC, Esquerra Republicana, CUP and the Commons showed their support for the demonstration. The mayor of Barcelona, ​​the socialist Jaume Collboni, participated discreetly, placing himself far from the head.

Although the mass demonstration in Barcelona was held at noon, there was another in the afternoon, much lower, in which a group of people attacked various food stores in international brands in the city center. A Via Laietana Starbucks ended the glass and broken label; The Carrefour de la Rambla supermarket received the impact of smoke boats, tiles and fences; and local McDonald’s and Burger King were also the subject of the wrath of the protesters, he informs Jesús García Bueno. Mossos d’Esquadra riot agents made police charges to disperse protesters.

Arrived from different parts of the Basque Country and Navarra, thousands of protesters – 50,000 according to the organizers and 10,000 according to the Government Delegation – toured Pamplona to denounce the “genocide” and express solidarity with the Palestinian people. “Gaza, endures, the world rises”, “Boikot Israel” or “Gora Palestinar Erresistzia (Long live the Palestinian Resistance)” were some of the slogans of a mass march.

More than a thousand people joined in Seville, waving Palestine flags, to the demonstration convened in support of the Gazaties and to request the release of the members of the flotilla that carried humanitarian aid and that were and imprisoned. Among the attendees, the Federal Coordinator of the United Left, Antonio Maíllo, who expressed his “skepticism” to open negotiations for a peace plan. The filmmaker Alberto Rodríguez and the actor Antonio de la Torre also participated. The Andalusia Human Rights Association urged the Government to identify agents who practiced “a police burden against peaceful protesters” on Thursday in the Andalusian capital. In Malaga, hundreds of people went out with banners that said “Let’s stop the genocide in Palestine” and chanting “Netanyahu, murderer” and “the stolen lands will be recovered.”

“Palestine is not sold”, “Let’s stop the genocide in Gaza”, “It is not a war, it is a genocide”, “boycott to Israel” or “flotilla, endures, the world rises” were some of the slogans heard and read in the banners in Santander, where hundreds of protesters challenged the rain and the wind to “hug” the Marqués de Valdecilla University A human chain that sought to denounce the “destruction” of the health system in the Gaza Strip, according to the calls.

A long row of umbrella, among which a multitude of Palestinian flags, composed the image of the demonstration in Vigo, where there were also thousands of protesters, who sang songs such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will beat” or “It is not a war, it is a genocide.”

With information from Sara Castro, Stephanny Pinzón, Camilo S. Baquero, Ferrán Bono and Ángel Munárriz.