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It Finally Happens: Spain Rebels Against Israel and Its Genocide in Gaza

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The BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement appears to be going from strength to strength. As with South Africa, it is largely a bottom-up process. 

Exactly a week ago, we reported on how Spain had become the fourth EU country to impose some form of sanctions on Israel over its ongoing genocide in Gaza (after Ireland, Slovenia and Belgium). The sanctions imposed include a ban on the purchase or sales of weapons, ammunition and military equipment from or to Israel. There is also a ban on Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons or fuel from calling at Spanish ports or entering Spanish airspace.

Since then, things have escalated rapidly. Over the past two weeks, thousands of protesters have disrupted key stages of the 90th edition of Spain’s La Vuelta cycling race due to the organisers’ decision to allow an Israeli team to compete. That team is sponsored by Israel Premier-Tech whose owner, Sylvan Adams, is close to Benjamin Netanyahu and has done everything in his power over the past decade to project a good image for Israel through cycling.

Before the event began, pro-Palestine movements made repeated requests to the organisers and the Spanish government to expel the Israeli team from the event to prevent Israel from being able to “sportswash” its image as it commits the worst of all war crimes. But they were ignored. So, they took matters into their own hands by disrupting the race at various stages, starting in Catalonia. The cycling-mad Basques also put some sticks in spokes.

But it was during the final stage, in and around Madrid, where the coup de grace was delivered. On Sunday, an estimated 100,000 demonstrators (according to the government) managed to bring the race to a grinding halt despite a massive mobilisation of riot police. The cyclists were eventually forced to stop around 60 kilometres from the finishing line. The mayor of Madrid and the president of the Community of Madrid, both fervent Zionists, were seething.

It is not hard to see this as history in the making. For the first time in a very long time, Israel has suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of one of its Western allies. The people of Spain have finally said “basta” to the non-stop orgy of death and destruction taking place in Gaza. Just listen to the cacophony of noise ring out across Madrid’s streets and squares (you may want to turn the volume down):

Here they are chanting, among other things, “this is not a war, it’s a genocide”.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, to his immense credit, has responded to the events by praising the protestors and calling for Israel’s expulsion from all international competitions, becoming the first European leader to do so. He has also threatened to boycott Eurovision 2026 should Israel participate. He even addressed the elephant in the room since October 7, 2023 — the EU’s glaring double standards over Israel when compared to Russia:

“Why was Russia expelled after the invasion of Ukraine, but Israel is not expelled after the invasion of Gaza?”

Here’s the full subtitled clip:

As we pointed out last week, Spain’s government has been slow to act, but at least it is now acting — unlike some:

Granted, the Sánchez government had little choice in the matter: pro-Palestine sentiment is strong across a broad cross-section of Spanish society, with 82% qualifying Israel’s acts in Gaza as genocide, according to a recent survey. Plus, Sánchez is facing myriad scandals at home and appears to have decided, wisely, that the Gaza crisis makes for a useful diversionary tactic, especially given the opposition’s unwavering support for Tel Aviv.

Whatever one might say about Sánchez, he is an innate political survivor. Since heading his first broad-based — or as some called it, Frankenstein — government in 2018, he has steered Spain through seven years of multiple crises (the fallout from the Catalan independence movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, surging inflation…) and, more recently, modest economic growth, even outlasting most of his EU peers.

Also, to his credit, he was one of the first EU leaders to criticise Israel for its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which he did back in November 2023, just one month into the genocide. It then took his government another six months to recognise Palestine but at least it did it. At the same time, his government continued to buy and sell weapons to and from Israel.

He has also been pushed into taking many of these actions by the sheer strength of opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza among both the Spanish public and his coalition partners. In a new interview Irene Montero recounts how in the early days of Israel’s assault of Gaza, Sánchez would bristle each time she and her fellow minister at the time, Ione Belarra, used the word “genocide” in public:

“When this genocide began, Ione Belarra and I were still ministers in the Spanish government. And one of the biggest sources of frustration for Pedro Sánchez was the fact that we began calling this a genocide on the very first day. The Socialist Party at the time wanted no one to use the word “genocide” and asked us not to. There is a level of hypocrisy here — to be more concerned about not naming the genocide than trying to stop it…

When you say it’s a genocide it means you can do something about it at the institutional level, and that was something the Socialist Party did not want. Now that civil society is pouring onto the streets to demand the end of this genocide, it has forced the government to shift position — or at least commit to doing something so that it can be seen to be taking action, even though there is a lot more it can do.

That all being said, at least someone in the collective West is doing something. Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin says Spain is “saving Europe’s honour” (or what little is left of it. As readers may recall, de Villepin gave a historic speech at the UN Security Council, voicing France’s opposition to the United States’ military intervention in Iraq. He is also a fierce critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza. From El Independiente:

“We would like French diplomacy; we would like France to be more active, to be able to take initiatives, either by denouncing the association agreement with the Europeans, or by taking additional embargo measures as Spain does. Today, who is saving Europe’s honour in this region? Spain, not France,” De Villepin said in an interview on French public television Franceinfo…

“In this sense, I consider that France is not up to the task. Spain has already recognised the Palestinian state along with other countries, such as Ireland and Slovenia. Therefore, it is clear that an effort must be made. Peace and justice are the two conditions for a new stability in this region. And this message must be conveyed to Benjamin Netanyahu and to all the Israeli people,” said the former French premier, whose statements in solidarity with Gaza have brought him back into the public spotlight after more than a decade out of active politics.

Last week, even the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced some EU-wide sanctions against extreme Israeli ministers and violent settlers as well as the suspension of free trade with Israel during her annual “state of the union” speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg.

It is a sign that even some of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Europe are finally buckling under the weight of public and legal opinion as the genocide in Gaza approaches its two-year mark. As we previously reported, VdL has faced a barrage of criticism within EU institutions, including by the Commission’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, as well as in some European capitals, for her early unqualified support for Israel:

Following her visit to Israel in October, she was accused in a letter signed by 842 EU staffers of turning a blind eye to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. The letter accused VdL of giving “a free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime in the Gaza Strip”. It also warned that the EU is “losing all credibility” as well as its status “as a fair, equitable and humanist broker,” while  ripping into VdL’s “patent” double standards over what is currently unfolding in Palestine and events in Ukraine.

In early May, Borrell laid into his boss for ignoring a request lodged three months earlier by the governments of Spain and Ireland to conduct a thorough review of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel due to human rights violations in the Gaza Strip. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez and the-then Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, sent a letter to the EU Commission president in February proposing a reconsideration of the association agreement, which includes among its clauses the possibility of suspending the agreement’s terms if international law is breached. But instead of suspending the agreement, VdL promoted closer EU-Israel cooperation.

It is not just her EU colleagues or underlings accusing VdL of complicity in war crimes. On May 22, two European human rights organisations — the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) and the Paris-based Collectif de Juristes pour le Respect des engagements internationaux de la France (CJRF) —  and a group of “international concerned citizens”, submitted a legal brief to the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan requesting the opening of an investigation into the EU Commission president for her complicity in Israel’s war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the Gaza Strip.

Here’s the Spanish MEP Irene Montero (Podemos) tearing into VdL’s criminal inaction over Gaza at the European parliament:

As the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories noted, Von der Leyen’s partial U-turn last week was simply “too little, too late”:

Given the speed and scale of the slaughter in Gaza, time is of the essence. A new report, by Doctor Gideon Ploya and Prof. Richard Hil, suggests that as many as 680,000 Palestinians, including 479,000 children, may have lost their life.

Spain will no doubt suffer reprisals for daring to escalate its sanctions against Tel Aviv. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has already accused Sánchez of being “an anti-Semite and a liar” in a message on social media. For Israel, the biggest danger is that other countries, not just in Europe, follow Madrid’s lead.

“Political violence has no place in our societies,” said Saar (see video below). “Just yesterday a pro-Palestinian mob sabotaged the La Vuelta cycling race in Spain. They did so with the support and encouragement of the Spanish government, of the Spanish prime minister. It’s almost unbelievable. Mr Sánchez and his communist ministers encourage violence.”

Tel Aviv has already banned two Spanish politicians from entering Israel and has also confirmed its withdrawal from the next edition of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest global technology fair held annually in Barcelona, the city from which the Global Sumud Flotilla departed for Gaza.

The US will presumably also join the scrum. When Spanish authorities began preventing the stopover of Israel-bound ships last year, the US Federal Maritime Commission opened a sanctioning file against Madrid. Last week, the Trump administration officially accused Spain of supporting Hamas due to its sanction measures against Israel. From Onda Cero:

The U.S. State Department expressed concern in a statement, stressing that Spain’s actions “embolden Hamas terrorists” and could affect US operations in the region. The warning came on the same day the Sánchez government announced a ban on Israel-bound ships from being able to refuel as well as on “the entry into Spanish airspace of State-owned aircraft carrying defence material bound for Israel”. It also coincided with an attack in Jerusalem in which a Spanish citizen died…

´Last Monday, the government approved a package of nine measures aimed at pressuring the Israeli government over the situation in Gaza. These include the arms embargo on Israel, the ban on the transit of military ships and aircraft, the designation as personas non grata certain Israeli ministers linked to the repression in Gaza and the suspension of the import of products from illegal settlements.

The good news, I suppose, is that whatever measures the US and Israel end up taking, they cannot prevent the Spanish people’s rebellion against Israel’s genocide from inspiring other people around the world to do the same. Whatever they do, they will make their case worse. Despite all the desperate attempts to suppress it, the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement appears to go from strength to strength with each fresh Israeli assault on Gaza.

Just as happened with Apartheid South Africa, it is the offending country’s own vile actions that ultimately drive the success of BDS. And as with South Africa, it is largely a bottom-up process.

 

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42 comments

  2. Ignacio

    I am wondering (just wishing?) if the Al Sisi regime in Egypt might became the next step in this bottom-up process. So far the regime is exerting full control of the situation by repression, deportation of foreign protesters etc. Though whatever happens it will come all too late, better too late than never. The media depicts Egypt as a mediator in Gaza but at the same time it is repressing any popular attempt of activists to reach Rafah. The Kings of Spain are now visiting Egypt but this is all about business as usual and visiting Luxor without Gaza as a theme to be addressed.

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  3. Curro Jimenez

    What I have found seriously appalling has been Spain’s main opposition party politicians (Ayuso, Almeida and Feijóo, though the latter to a lesser degree) trying to get political credit by criticizing the protests and even accusing the government of terrorism. It was expected from VOX, but that they would so much endanger their moral compass for a little, if any, political credit (even many on the right side of the political spectrum in Spain are against the genocide) is just… well, politics, I guess.

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    1. Ignacio

      Yeah the PP is trying to VOXey as much as they can and loosing ground in the process. The PP or/and VOX would, if in power, be funnelling money to Ukraine like some other id… leaders no matter the deficit. Hopefully iIf and when they reach the position the war will be mostly or entirely done. VOX is very Atlanticist.

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    2. Bacchunin

      Do you remember that lady, not that many years ago, who was called to clean Madrid from corruption and her career was killed by a shop video of she herself stealing cosmetic products? After the funny video (Eroski was heavily fined because it was supposed it was its responsibility to avoid the video became public), the dripping was non-stop: universitary degree faked (she never ever was in a classroom), and so on and on.

      Rajoy had his life fixed since his very birthdate. You know who his father was, and what he did (Redondela affair, for instance). Feijoo (by the way, why the acute accent? Makes no sense either in Spanish or Galician, in despite its use, and it’s not an archaism) is a “muerto de hambre” (down-and-out, I think the best fitted translation), like that lady. He is a pawn, he always had zero iniciative and autonomy. He actually fears Madrid political pigstry.

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  5. OIFVet

    From my perch in Europe I notice definite shift in attitudes against Israel and Netanyahu because of their actions in Gaza. The holdouts seem to be pro-Ukrain liberals and nationalists with their preexisting anti-Arab/Muslim bent, who are also generally anti-Ukraine. Strange bedfellows.

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    1. divadab

      Strange bedfellows until you figure out that the Ukraine project is a Zionist project. Utterly ironic since it seems to me to be a continuation of the Hitler project for Ukraine.

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      1. hk

        Strange until you realize that Zionists were willing to make common cause with the Nazis (although the extent of how far they went gets buried in sensationalism.) They welcomed antisemitism in Europe because that generated/s potential migrants to Palestine.

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      2. Anonted

        I came here, specifically to postulate, that perhaps Ukraine is also The Promised Land… I’ve been trying to understand Israeli interests there, generally, and keep coming back to that, given their tentative position in the Levant, positive relationship with Russia, and penchant for playing major powers off one another.

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  6. TiPi

    There is a tokenism in some of the sanctions regime, welcome though these actions are.

    Halting any and all purchases of materiel from Israel is more important than banning exports to Israel.

    What is really needed is a European wide (if not global) ban on any purchases of the Israeli war bonds being issued to fund their genocide.

    Starving the Israel regime of finance and access to resources is crucial.

    The Starmer government in the UK has been utterly shameful in its very limited response to Netanyahu’s actions, and SKS will be held responsible for this in due course. Spain and Ireland are leading the way, but condemnation of the genocide is not enough. More action isolating Israel is needed.

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    1. divadab

      “The Starmer government in the UK has been utterly shameful”

      Well Starmer took the leadership of the Labour party riding on false accusations of “anti-semiticism” by Jeremy Corbin – for daring to support Palestine! Starmer is a creature of Israel. A traitor to the UK.

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      1. TiPi

        Those of us who actually read the Forde Report could have told you that 3 yrs ago – even before the Gaza War.

        Zionism has poisoned much UK politics.

        Next step for Spain, Belgium, Ireland is to get the EU Israel trade tresty cancelled. Spartan life beckons for Israelis.

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    2. The Heretic

      Actually no… both are needed
      Banning any sales of goods to Israel , and banning any transit from spain to israel amounts to a siege to physically deprive it of the means to conduct a war…

      Banning purchases of goods from israel impedes Israel from accumulating USD to buy goods from abroad. This is however less useful, as Zionist xxSA can always give subsides and do purchased on its behalf…

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  7. ay

    “That team is sponsored by Israel Premier Tech whose CEO, Sylvan Adams”

    The name of the team is Israel – Premier Tech. The name is hyphenated because there are 2 title sponsors.

    Sylvan Adams is team owner and is responsible for the “Israel” part of the name.

    Premier Tech is a Canadian company. Sylvan adams is not its CEO. PT is a co-sponsor of the team.

    The relationship between PT and Sylvan Adams is unclear. It would be good if someone could clarify it.

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  8. St Jacques

    Sanchez could have banned the Israeli team from participating. Why didn’t he? Having demonstraters dangerously storm the bike race, throwing bags of urine at the riders; this is not the way to do it. I’m afraid Sanchez is an opportunist just like all politicians. His party is on the ropes because of a corruption scandal and so he chose to do it this unseemly way to galvanise support by polarising the country. From what I have read, many people who are against what the Israeli military are doing in Gaza have been angered at how he encouraged the demonstraters and then sent in an undermanned police force to protect the riders, with the result being that a number of people, especially police, were injured.

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    1. ForFawkesSake

      OMG not the cops! What a world where filthy icky protestors have to resort to such extremes disrupting a useless event to call attention to an actual genocide! I need my smelling salts because I’ve got the vapors!

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    2. XXYY

      Having demonstraters dangerously storm the bike race, throwing bags of urine at the riders; this is not the way to do it.

      Just to underline the obvious: political protest is theater. The goal is to disrupt the smooth operation of the oppressor and draw attention to what is happening. Throwing bags of urine is in keeping with this tradition, though not something anyone would like to be subjected to themselves.

      Recall the great activist Abbie Hoffman planning a protest of the Vietnam War whereby people would surround the Pentagon, hold hands, and attempt to levitate the building! This is probably the purest example of effective political protest. (Amusingly, Hoffman was arrested during a planning event for this protest, where he and a group of people attempted to measure the length of one side of the Pentagon to figure out how many people they would need. As he explained in court, since the building was a pentagon, you only had to measure one side and multiply by 5. “Did you know it’s illegal to measure the Pentagon?” he asked the courtroom audience in mock puzzlement.)

      Effective political protest should be memorable and comedic.

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      1. St Jacques

        A lot of people who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause were angered by this. In their eyes, Sanchez deliberately disrupted the race to distract from his government’s corruption scandal. Apart from an abuse of his position as PM, and putting ordinary citizens in harms way, and encouraging the worst elements in Spanish society to join in the protests, this has done damage to the Palestinian cause simply for Sanchez’s own selfish purposes.

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    3. TiPi

      I followed the Vuelta every day and do not recognise the situation you describe.

      There was a lot of support from riders, team DS, and in media coverage for the right to protest as long as safety was maintained.

      If you have ever cycled at 80km+ per hr (50mph) you’ll know the dangers.

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  9. The Rev Kev

    Historically the Spanish are a very, very tough people so I doubt that they will buckle down under threats by Trump. Trump may threaten sanctions but the US already sanctions a third of the world so take a ticket. The dam may finally be breaking as they see the bloodthirstiness of the Netanyahu regime and how they boast of their atrocities and Spain is at the forefront of this. Netanyahu can see the writing on the wall too and he has just said Israel must prepare for ‘isolation’ and even though he was talking about the defense industry, he came out and said ‘Israel will have to reshape its economy to withstand sweeping sanctions and boycotts’–

    https://www.rt.com/news/624700-israel-must-prepare-isolation-netanyahu/

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    1. scott s.

      Maybe Spain could fire up the Dominicans for an Inquisition. Point being, historically Spain is not in the best position to act as a counter to Israel.

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      1. Valerie in Australia

        It is never too late to change.

        At this point in the disgraceful behaviour of the Collective West, I still give the Spanish people a lot of credit for taking a moral stance.

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  10. JMH

    680,000 dead. But wait, that is only an estimate. Wait for what? 1,000,000. Destruction of the population of Gaza was the goal from the beginning. But there is the right to defend one’s self. There is. Defense implies proportionality. Jet aircraft dropping huge bombs. Armored vehicles, tanks, all the panoply of modern war. And the arms of the people of Gaza? Had they, have they anything comparable? Anything proportional? If the aim was the return of the prisoners, the hostages, their release could have been secured two years ago. Perhaps, but that would have required concessions. Indeed, but if you want your people back safe and well would you not make concessions? Even if you were insincere with every intention of going back on your word, rationalizing your treachery by saying you were coerced, would you not want your people back? Unless they were hostages to be used not by Gaza, not by Hamas, but by you, as an excuse to continue the campaign to not just “mow the grass” but to uproot it and obliterate its very memory. And so it goes. And so it will continue as long as Israel-United States are as one.

    It is so easy for me to write that. I am comfortable, physically. The knowledge that there is a genocide in progress, people driven from pillar to post, shot, blown up, beaten, starved, mocked, spat upon wracks my mind and soul. What is one to do when here in the United States the “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” is perishing from the earth? You say it is not? Look around. The elected representatives of the people do not respond to their wishes. Those representatives seem in thrall to political influence? donor money? blackmail? Or is that they are sincere in their attachment to the state of Israel and the actions of it government? Or do they fear the power of the president to threaten their prospects for re-election? Perhaps it is all of these fears and more, but by action and inaction the government of the United States in the person of its elected and appointed officials is fully complicit, fully guilty, of aiding and abetting a genocide. But there are raison d’etat, you protest. I am sure there are in your minds. That does not excuse you as an individual or the government as an institution.

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  11. divadab

    About time. Those Israeli genociders need punishment good and hard. Not buying their shit a good start. Total boycott required. Total ban on Israeli participation in ANY international sporting, or any other event. Cut them off. No truck, no trade – BLOCKADE!

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    1. bertl

      Or just close Israel down as a bad idea whose time has gone, freeze all assets held by Zionists whether Christian, Jewish or bought politicians, and arrest and try them all for genocide or complicity in genocide and punish them appropriately with death or imprisonment in El Salvador. Sometimes the strangest dreams can come true.

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  12. Revenant

    If the US sanctions the EU, it is worth remembering that SWIFT is based in Belgium. If I were Belgium, I would have plans to seize control of those servers at short notice….

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    1. John k

      Interesting. I wonder when eu realizes us is the enemy? We successfully pushed Russia/iran/china/nk into a tight alliance, we might now be pushing all asia together. Eu sanctions, Qatari attack, rapidly coalescing opinion. More people using the forbidden g-word.

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  13. Glenda

    Hooray for the people of Spain!
    Hooray for ” the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement appears to go from strength to strength with each fresh Israeli assault on Gaza.”
    Chevron (contract for oil field in Gaza) is a local biz that I am boycotting, even with a station 1 block from my house. I’ll be looking at the local BDS groups to support.
    It’s all better late than never.

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    1. Ashburn

      I’ve gotta say, I’m bitterly disappointed in BDS. As someone who contributed to BDS in the past, I see no outreach and no effort on its part to promote its agenda or recruit more donors. One would think that the organization would be advertising itself all over alt/independent media. Not so. Whenever I have given to activist organizations in the past, I always receive follow-up emails to give again. Not so from BDS–just crickets. To me, in the face of this ongoing Israeli genocide and world historical crime against humanity this failure of BDS is beyond shameful.

      I would be interested to learn if others have noted a similar absence from BDS. It’s as if the organization has gone into hibernation.

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  14. ciroc

    “Political violence has no place in our societies,” said Saar (see video below). “Just yesterday a pro-Palestinian mob sabotaged the La Vuelta cycling race in Spain. They did so with the support and encouragement of the Spanish government, of the Spanish prime minister. It’s almost unbelievable. Mr Sánchez and his communist ministers encourage violence.”

    Israeli humor is intense.

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  15. Es s Ce Tera

    It strikes me that as soon as there is any kind of peace or cessation of military activity what will likely happen is a) a census, b) recovery of all the bodies, the combination of which will definitively answer the question of Palestinian death count, and would also make clear this was a genocide. Israel is wanting to desperately avoid both, at all costs. If it was really not a genocide Israel would have nothing to hide from either.

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  17. Frank

    Seems Israeli society is rabid and believes it is obliged to continue to prosecute its holocaust.
    They are too numerous to deprogram.
    Kinetic means may be necessary.
    Their cultish beliefs are like stage 4 metastatic cancer.

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  18. patrik

    A new report, by Doctor Gideon Ploya and Prof. Richard Hil, suggests that as many as 680,000 Palestinians, including 479,000 children, may have lost their life.
    ================
    is this passage a form of dry humor?

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