Barcelona has taken to the streets again this Wednesday in a new demonstration in supporting Palestine and demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. From early in the afternoon, thousands of people arrived at the Barcelona Sants station and its surroundings, became a sea of Palestinian scarves and flags, a general strike day which has generated a new wave of protests.
Fatima43 years old and originally from Tangierwent by subway with her two daughters, aged ten and four. “They understand what is happening, that there are children their age dying every day.“, he explains to EL PERIÓDICO, under the watchful eyes of the girls, who wear T-shirts of the Moroccan national team with the stickers of the student union as insignia. “It’s unfair, that’s why we have to go out and protest”.
They had already attended the morning call, and they repeat, despite having experienced some moments of anguish, when they were separated, she with one of the daughters, and her husband with the other, some inside and others outside the station, without the police allowing them to enter or leave. But Fátima assures that she trusts in the security of the demonstrations: “If things get ugly, I put myself close to the police because I think they would protect me.”
Irritant gases from the beginning
And things got ugly. Minutes after the scheduled time, Police officers began spraying irritant gases at the initial meeting pointon Roma Avenue. First aid teams treated several affected people, including a mother and her son who fled running towards a fixed point that they could see with their eyes barely open: the white flags with the red cross that were flying on one side of the march, in the vicinity of the Sants station.
They were the Rescue Life volunteersa non-profit organization made up of first responders, emergency technicians and health personnel, born after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “We are here doing our job, which is to demand access to healthhere and in Gaza,” Juan, one of its members, explains to this newspaper. “We want democratize healthcare in conflict contexts.
Fire in front of the fire department
The banners, many made by hand, showed the diversity of the groups arriving from different parts of Catalonia: neighborhood associations, entire families, students and youth from political parties.
The march advanced calmly, among the slogans that have already become commonplace in the protests of recent weeks: “Israel is not a country, it is an occupation” or “Elizabeth murders, Europe sponsorsT-shirts with the colors and slogans of “Free Palestine” were sold in improvised stalls, while protesters chanted in favor of a ceasefire.
However, less than an hour before the start of the march, Some protesters started a fire by burning a group of recycling containersin front of the Tarragona metro stop. Some plastic containers jumped into the air, but no one in the march seemed to be disturbed, rather some moved away to continue with the peaceful process while some of the younger people claimed the symbolic gesture. The firefighters appeared after about 10 minutes, finding themselves a few meters from the Eixample Fire Station.
As the march advanced along Tarragona Avenue, the march turned at the height of the Las Arenas shopping center, bordering Joan Miró Park instead of entering Plaza España, where traffic continued to circulate normally, while the sun began to set. In the environment, a mixture of indignation, solidarity and fatigue for a war that does not end at the moment.
General strike day
Barely two weeks after tens of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the call has continued despite the announcement of the peace agreement between Israel and Hamas signed in Egypt this week. The demands now focus on demanding that the ceasefire be respected, something that the Israeli Army is already failing to comply with, with at least nine Palestinians killed in the first 24 hours. Furthermore, Israeli authorities have also not opened the Rafah humanitarian aid crossing between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt.
In the morning, more than 7,000 people participated in a demonstration in the center of Barcelonawhile the concentrations have been repeated in several locations. In front of the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelonaon Passeig de Gràcia, the CCOO and UGT unions of Catalonia They have led a rally to demand the cutting of all types of commercial relations with Israel.
The strike called with partial stoppages in companies and public administrations has had an uneven follow-up, the disruptions in services have been minimal, with specific effects on mobility and work activity.
A few hours before the start of the march at Sants station, The Mossos d’Esquadra had already dispersed them with baton blows. the surroundings to protesters who remained after the student march in the morning and waiting for the unitary march in the afternoon.
From Israel, direct criticism of Spain has not been slow in coming. The Israeli chargé d’affaires in Spain, Dana Erlich, has stated on the social networkreal opportunity for the region”, despite the fact that violence continues.
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