A day of protest was called on Friday, September 27, and a general strike took place across the whole of Spain in solidarity with Palestine.
The strike was coordinated and backed by hundreds of organisations throughout the country, including numerous workers syndicates, student unions, and groups focused on a diversity of fields, like human rights, the environment, housing, women, and minorities, among many others.
Some left-wing political parties also showed their support. It was definitely a historic first for any country in Europe.
The general strike came at a time when Israeli aggression in the Middle East has reached its highest point in decades.
After bombing the Gaza Strip for a year and killing tens of thousands of Palestinians during the course of the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has now turned its focus towards Lebanon.
Hundreds of civilians have already died in the last ten days, and the governments of the Global North finally seem to have been urged to put an end to Israel’s onslaught.
Spain has been at the forefront of Palestinian solidarity during this last year with numerous demonstrations, while the Spanish government formally recognised the State of Palestine at the end of May.
It has also been highly critical of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
However, activists argued that it has not gone far enough.
That’s why the general strike called for a change.
Organisers believe the Pedro Sánchez administration’s role has been ‘shameful’, and accuse it of being ‘complicit’ in the genocide of Palestinians.
Therefore, they called the country to come to a complete halt until the government breaks its diplomatic relations with Israel, as well as its commercial and military ties that include a weapons trade valued at over one billion euros.
From the very first hours of last Friday, numerous protests sprouted across the country, many of them in universities.
They were the same locations where, only a few months ago, students set up camp in a bid to force boards to break their ties with Israeli institutions, displaying the impressive role of young people in the Palestinian cause. ‘We’re not going to study under the noise from the bombs’, students denounced on social media.
Meanwhile, local organisations set up many other actions.
In the spirit of the BDS movement, activists decided to enforce a boycott of companies that are said to be complicit with the Israeli occupation.
In the famous La Rambla of Barcelona, a group of demonstrators blocked access to a supermarket while shouting ‘Israel kills, Carrefour sponsors’, to the surprise of the tourists who amble along the bustling street.
Elsewhere, a Starbucks and a Santander Bank branch was defaced for profiting from the Palestinian genocide.
As to the following that the general strike had garnered, the response had been strongest in the professional sectors where the organising workers’ unions have a larger backing.
Therefore, teachers and healthcare workers made up a large bulk of the protesters.
On social media, independent companies like the left-wing publisher Manifest Llibres or the clothing store Top Manta, created by ex-street sellers, also announced their adherence to the strike and closed for the day.
But the main show of support for the Palestinian cause came later in Friday afternoon.
Tens of thousands of people crowded the main cities in Spain, waving flags, sporting keffiyehs and chanting slogans like ‘Boycott Israel’, ‘It’s not war, it’s genocide’ and ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.
This is far from the first time that Spanish society has flooded the streets to denounce the massacre in Gaza during the last year, but it could well hold the record for the highest turnout yet.
‘Today is a day of action’, the organisers called out during the march, recalling previous examples of struggle. ‘Here lies the spirit of the intifada’.
Another made clear that the protest was against Israeli aggression, but also against Western complicity.
‘We’re here as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians and against their genocide’, she said.
The message is clear: ‘Only the people save the people’.
