“Israel Kills, Europe Sponsors!”: Spaniards Mobilize for Palestine, Call Out EU Complicity
A scene from the October 15, 2023 Palestine solidarity demonstration in Madrid. The large banner reads “Long live the Palestinian struggle! Down with Netanyahu’s Zionist and fascist government!” The sign on the right argues that the US “protects” Israel while Europe “cries out” and Israel “destroys and kills.” (Photo: John Collins)
As the Israeli military continues to subject Palestinians in Gaza to a brutal siege accompanied by heavy aerial bombardment, citizens around the world are rising up to express their solidarity with Palestinians and to demand that Israel and its international supporters be held accountable. At a march held in the Spanish capital, Madrid, protesters sought to focus attention on the role of the European Union (EU) in enabling Israel’s war crimes.
“It’s a genocide!”
More than 10,000 people of all ages participated in the march, which was held in the center of Madrid on Sunday, October 15, 2023. (Police sources, whose estimates are notoriously low, put the number at 9,000.) Billed as “Madrid con Palestina: manifestación contra el colonialismo israelí” (Madrid with Palestine: demonstration against Israeli colonialism”), the event was organized and led by a coalition of groups representing Palestinians and the Palestinian cause in Spain.
Referring to the racist and dehumanizing language used by some Israeli officials in tandem with Israel’s brutal siege and bombing of Gaza following the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, many of the marchers chanted, “No es una guerra - es un genocidio!” (“It’s not a war - it’s a genocide!”). In doing so, they echoed the analysis of Raz Segal, an Israeli professor of genocide and Holocaust studies who has described Israel’s words and actions in Gaza as “a textbook case” of “intent to commit genocide.” Other chants included “Estado sionista, estado terrorista!” (“Zionist state, terrorist state!”) and “Palestina! Libertad!” (“Free Palestine!”).
Marchers in Madrid calling for a free Palestine. (Video: John Collins)
Calls to hold Europe accountable
Of particular interest, however, were the chants that sought to focus attention on the role of the EU and many member governments in enabling Israeli state violence against Palestinians. Cries of “Israel asesina, Europa patrocina!” (“Israel kills, Europe sponsors!”) echoed through the air as the crowd wound its way toward Sol, where the 2011 anti-austerity indignados movement (known in Spain as 15-M) began.
These chants offered a determined reminder that EU policy when it comes to armed conflict is anything but consistent. Following the Hamas attacks, for example, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen expressed full support for Israel’s response and “made no public criticism of Israel’s warning to more than one million people in northern Gaza to leave their homes within 24 hours or risk death.” Yet as many observers were quick to point out, Von der Leyen had stated clearly in 2022, in reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine, that attacks on civilian infrastructure constituted war crimes and “acts of pure terror.”
In recent days, the EU has sought to emphasize the “humanitarian” needs of the Palestinians facing Israel’s assault in Gaza. Yet the question of how to hold Israel accountable for its obvious violations of international law remains a question that most European leaders are not willing to entertain. One is reminded here of James Baldwin’s trenchant observation made in 1979, three decades after the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland and the creation of the state of Israel:
But the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. This is what is becoming clear (I must say that it was always clear to me). The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of “divide and rule” and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years.
Palestine enters the Spanish political fray
While Spain remains firmly part of the EU, there is also a lively debate within the country’s political class about whether Spain should toe the EU line on Israel. This debate maps quite clearly along ideological lines, with left-of-center parties showing their willingness to stand up more confidently against Israeli apartheid, colonialism, and human rights violations.
On October 16, the leftist party Podemos, a member of the Sumar coalition that is part of the current caretaker government led by the Socialist party (the PSOE), took the bull by the horns (to use a very Spanish metaphor). Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra, one of the most visible leaders of Podemos, issued a video statement calling for Spain to bring to the International Criminal Court (ICC) a case against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for war crimes. “Using Hamas as an excuse to murder thousands of Palestinian civilians, including civilians,” said Belarra, “is unspeakable hypocrisy on the part of both Israel and the countries that justify it.”
In a subsequent statement on behalf of Podemos, Belarra called out her party’s coalition partner the PSOE for failing to meet the urgency of the moment. “The PSOE is making small gestures, but they are not enough,” she argued. “We should take an independent position, without following the EU, and aim for the end of the genocide and the apartheid that the state of Israel has been carrying out for a long time.”
Many on the Left have criticized the Sumar coalition for being too timid when it comes to condemning Israel’s genocidal language and actions. Following Belarra’s statement, Sumar issued its own statement accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and characterizing the public demonstrations in Madrid and elsewhere as proof that Spaniards want a “just solution” for Palestinians and Israelis.
Meanwhile, the PSOE, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has been trying not to stray too far from the mainstream EU line. On the same day as Podemos and Sumar spoke of Israeli war crimes, the best that Sánchez could muster was to make vague remarks about “peace” and emphasize the need for a two-state solution - a model that Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory has been steadily burying and rendering impossible for decades.
The PSOE’s position, of course, reflects the realities of governing an EU member state under a political umbrella that is decidedly unwilling to stand up to Israeli crimes. These tensions within Spain’s current ruling coalition will be worth monitoring in the coming days as the PSOE continues its attempt to form a new government with support from Sumar.
Finally, statements from the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party clearly confirm that in much of the world, strong support for Israel has become an article of faith for reactionary forces (including fascists). PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, keen to undermine the PSOE’s chances at remaining in power, has been hammering Sánchez for supposedly failing to condemn Hamas strongly enough. For his part, Vox leader Santiago Abascal has been typically inflammatory, accusing Podemos and Sumar (without evidence) of bringing “support for Hamas terrorism” into the cabinet.
People power for Palestine
Outside the halls of power, of course, the people who have been filling Spain’s streets in solidarity with Palestinians are more interested in justice than in efforts to score political points within a divided electorate. Where the leaders of traditional parties speak the language of cautious diplomacy, the people on the march are insisting on the need to confront what is really happening: colonization, apartheid, and genocide. Their cries of “Israel kills, Europe sponsors!” are a reminder that the people are increasingly able to see through the forms of manipulation through which Israel has been able to maintain its support among Europe’s political elites.
With the exception of some subtitled video material, all translations in this article are my own.
