More than 10,000 protesters marched against “the genocide in Palestine” in Madrid two days before the European Jewish Association Annual Conference, which began there on Monday.
The protest was organized by the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP) under the slogan “Move for Palestine.” The group, alongside Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Spain, said 100,000 people attended. Spanish media estimates were much smaller.
The protesters called on the Spanish government to divest from Israel, including “No buying, no selling, no transport of weapons or military material in Israel.”
Most sported keffiyehs, but others dressed in effigies of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, covered in fake blood, or waved Palestinian, Syrian, or Lebanese flags.
Lidón Soriano, a spokesperson for RESCOP, told the rally: “After 19 months of unprecedented brutality in the genocide that Israel has been committing against Palestine for decades, we have decided to hold this demonstration, as our demands are not reaching the Spanish government with sufficient clarity.”
Politicians also joined the march, including the leader of the Podemos political party, Ione Belarra, who took to the podium to call Netanyahu “the Hitler of our time.”
“Zionism is giving a terrifying history lesson, doing to the Palestinian people what the Nazis did to the Jews,” she added.
The head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs Authority, Raed Abu Al-Hummus, who was already in Spain as part of an official visit, told protesters: “What we witnessed today in Madrid is a testament to the power of global conscience.”
He added that he hopes to see similar mobilizations across European capitals, as “grassroots pressure is essential to compel governments to take meaningful action in the face of ongoing atrocities.”
Buses brought protesters from across Spain, including from BDS movements in Galicia and Valencia. El País reported that the mass rally was preceded by “15 weekends of decentralized protests in more than 100 municipalities across the country.”
Defense fair protest
On Sunday, 12 pro-Palestinian individuals were arrested by Madrid police after protesting the International Defense and Security Exhibition of Spain, held annually in Madrid.
One of the organizing groups, Desarma Madrid, told El Salto, “We carried out a nonviolent direct action, which we do every time this fair is held, even more so given the genocide being committed in Gaza and the war in Ukraine.”
The activists carried signs with the names of countries and territories involved in armed conflicts, including Yemen, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and Ukraine, poured blood over themselves, and then lay on the ground.
This happened despite the fact that Israel was banned from the fair.