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Backing Anti-Genocide Vuelta Protest, Spanish Prime Minister Calls for Global Sports Ban on Israel
"I think the debate that’s begun after what happened here in Madrid yesterday should widen and spread to all corners of the world," said Pedro Sanchez after Vuelta a España shut down by anti-genocide protests.
Sep 15, 2025
A day after a large-scale cycling race was halted in Madrid due to anti-genocide protests targeting the participation of an Israeli team, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday backed the demonstrators and called for Israel's total ban from international sporting competitions until the unlawful and brutal attack on the people of Gaza comes to an end.
"I think the debate that’s begun after what happened here in Madrid yesterday should widen and spread to all corners of the world,” Sanchez said, regarding the events of Monday when thousands of protesters forced the Vuelta a España, an annual race that attracts world-class cycling teams from around the globe, to screech to a halt.
As police clashed with demonstrators—100,000 or more—along the route, the chaos that ensued forced organizers to halt the final leg of the race and the award ceremony. Targeted by the demonstrators was an Israeli team, called Israel-Premier Tech.
Sanchez, in his remarks on Monday, compared the need for a ban on Israel for its "barbarism" in Gaza with the ban on Russian Federation sports teams and athletes due to their government's invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s already happening in some parts of the world and we’ve seen how European governments are saying that as long as the barbarism continues, Israel can’t use any international platform to whitewash its presence," said Sanchez. "And I think that sports organizations need to ask themselves whether it’s ethical for Israel to keep taking part in international competitions.”
"Our position is clear and categorical: As long as barbarity continues, neither Russia nor Israel should participate in any international competition,” Sanchez added.
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Spain Announces Arms Embargo on Israel and Other Steps 'to Stop the Genocide in Gaza'
"This is not self-defense," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asserted, "it is the extermination of a defenseless people and a violation of every international law."
Sep 08, 2025
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday announced a series of nine new measures—including a total arms embargo—aimed at pressuring the government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to stop the genocide in Gaza."
Sánchez, who leads the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), announced the steps during a speech in which he first acknowledged the historical suffering of the Jewish people, which includes the 1492 ethnic cleansing of Jews from Spain.
"The Jewish people have suffered countless persecutions, deserve to have their own state, and to feel secure," Sánchez said. "That is why the Spanish government has condemned Hamas' attacks from day one."
However, "there is a difference between defending your country and bombing hospitals or starving innocent children," the prime minister continued. "This is an unjustifiable attack on the civilian population, which the [United Nations] rapporteur has described as genocide."
"Sixty thousand dead, two million displaced, half of them children," Sánchez said. "This is not self-defense, it is not even an attack—it is the extermination of a defenseless people and a violation of every international law."
The nine measures—which must be approved by lawmakers and the Cabinet—include:
- A "legal and permanent prohibition" on the purchase and sale of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment;
- A ban on transit through Spanish ports for all ships carrying fuels destined for Israel's military;
- Denial of entry into Spanish airspace for all state aircraft carrying military equipment to Israel;
- A ban on entry to Spain for "all persons directly involved in genocide, human rights violations, and war crimes" in Gaza;
- Prohibition of imported products from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories;
- Limitation of consular services for Spanish citizens residing in illegal Israeli settlements;
- Strengthened support for the Palestinian Authority;
- An additional €10 million in support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); and
- An increase in overall humanitarian spending for Gaza, to reach €150 million by 2026.
"Spain does not have nuclear bombs. We cannot stop the Israeli offensive alone, but we will not stop trying," Sánchez said, recognizing the limitations of Monday's action.
Spain's new measures come in addition to its earlier steps toward an arms embargo, promotion of several UN ceasefire resolutions, support for the International Criminal Court's (ICC) effort to bring Netanyahu to justice and the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) ongoing South Africa-led genocide case against Israel, and formal recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Individual Spanish politicians have also taken action for Palestine, including former Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra, an early proponent for ICC prosecution of Netanyahu and others; former leftist lawmaker and Palma City Councilmember Lucia Muñoz, a participant in the Global Sumud Flotilla; and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, another flotilla member whose city cut ties with Israel prior to the Gaza genocide over "the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people."
The Global Sumud Flotilla—whose other members include Mandla Mandela, Susan Sarandon, and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg—set sail from Barcelona last month and was warmly welcomed Sunday upon a stopover in Tunis, Tunisia en route to the coast of Gaza, where activists will attempt to break an Israeli blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid.
The Israeli government responded to Sánchez's announcement with its customary allegation of antisemitism and an entry ban on Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz and Youth Minister Sira Rego.
"It is a point of pride that a genocidal state is banning me," said Díaz, a member of the Communist Party of Spain and Sumar movement.
Spain subsequently recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. The Spanish Foreign Ministry said the government "would not be intimidated in its defense of peace, international law, and human rights."
According to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry—which experts contend are likely a vast undercount—at least 64,522 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children. More than 163,000 others have been wounded, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are starving to death in a famine largely caused by Israel's "complete siege" of the coastal exclave. At least hundreds of Palestinians have starved to death in what hunger experts and every United Nations Security Council member except the United States have called a man-made catastrophe caused by Israeli policies and practices.
The ICC warrants issued last year for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accuse the pair of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including forced starvation and murder.
On Monday, Spain also condemned what it called a "terrorist attack" that left six people, including Spanish citizen Yakov Pinto, dead in a mass shooting north of occupied Jerusalem.
Sánchez's announcement followed pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protests in cities including the capital Madrid, where demonstrators rallied outside the Israeli Embassy on Saturday and shouted messages including, "It's Not a War, It's a Genocide!" and "Israel Kills, Europe Sponsors!"
GENOCIDIO EN GAZA
Concentración, hoy 06/09, delante de la embajada de Israel (Madrid)...
"No es una guerra, es un genocidio"
"Israel asesina, y Europa patrocina"
"Israel bombardea con bombas europeas"
"Esta embajada está ensangrentada" pic.twitter.com/rRH4T6zS7f
— Christophe Deschamps (@ChristopheDes16) September 6, 2025
On Sunday, demonstrators gathered in Madrid's Callao Square, where participants read aloud the names of many of the more than 18,500 Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, followed by the word "murdered."
According to a June Pew Research Center survey, 75% of Spanish respondents have a negative view of Israel, with 46%—the highest percentage of any non-Muslim nation in the 24 nations polled—having a "very unfavorable" view of the country.
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Global Sumud Flotilla Set for Latest Attempt to 'Break Israel's Illegal Siege on Gaza'
"Our boats carry more than aid. They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
Aug 29, 2025
Palestine defenders are preparing for the latest—and largest—Freedom Flotilla Coalition mission to set sail for Gaza in an attempt to break Israel's US-backed genocidal siege on the embattled Palestinian territory.
Dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from as many as 44 nations are set to take part in the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means "perseverance" in Arabic—as it attempts to run Israel's naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to the starving people of Gaza.
"We are a coalition of everyday people—organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers—who believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action," Global Sumud Flotilla's website explains.
In addition to "everyday people," flotilla participants include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, American actress Susan Sarandon, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, leftist Portuguese parliamentarian Mariana Mortágua, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Israel "is starving and killing the people of Gaza," Mandela—whose grandfather was not only a hero of his country's anti-apartheid struggle but also a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation—said Friday on behalf of the South African flotilla delegation. "We are a diverse group of international activists calling for urgent global action to compel Israel to open Gaza's borders to aid and end its genocide of the Palestinian people."
"We ask that South Africans of conscience join us," he added. South Africa is leading an ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that is officially or informally supported by around two dozen nations.
Colau said earlier this week that "to end the genocide in Gaza is the duty of all of us, so we have to do what is in our power to do it if governments, including the government of Spain, do not do what they can to stop the criminal state of Israel."
Spain has joined the ICJ genocide case against Israel, has formally recognized Palestinian statehood and urged other nations to do so, and has taken significant steps toward an arms embargo on Israel.
"Although Spain has positioned itself more than other governments and recognized the Palestinian state, words are not enough when thousands of children are being killed," Colau said Friday in an interview with RTE.
At least 18,500 children are among the more than 63,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023—although the official Gaza Health Ministry figures are likely a vast undercount, according to peer-reviewed studies.
"This is my third attempt to try to sail with humanitarian aid to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza and open up a humanitarian corridor," Thunberg, who is a member of the flotilla steering committee, told Middle East Eye Thursday.
"There have been 38 previous attempts just for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and now with the Global Sumud Flotilla," Thunberg continued. "This is unprecedented. We are mobilizing people from all over the world with dozens of boats sailing from Barcelona first, and then more boats joining us from other ports around the Mediterranean Sea."
"We are doing this because we are facing a genocide," she added. "We are seeing people being deliberately deprived of their basic means to sustain life. And this is a continuation of the suffocating oppression that Palestinians have been living under for decades, and we simply have no choice if we have any sense of humanity left, we cannot just sit by and watch this unfolding."
The Gaza Famine—officially declared last week by the authoritative Integrated Food Security Phase Classification—has claimed at least hundreds of Palestinian lives in what experts say is an engineered effort by Israel. The International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who ordered the "complete siege" on Gaza fueling the famine, list forced starvation, along with murder, as alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the pair.
Earlier this year, the FFC vessels Conscience, Madleen, and Handala each separately tried to break the blockade but were thwarted by Israeli forces in international waters, an apparent violation of maritime law. Flotilla activists were beaten, kidnapped, jailed, interrogated, and deported by Israel.
Fifteen years ago, Israeli forces raided one of the first FFC convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
The Sumud Flotilla comes as Israeli forces ramp up Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Gaza backed by the administration of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich proposed the systematic annexation of Gaza over the coming months if Hamas keeps fighting, as well as the implementation of Trump's plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian exclave and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Israel's siege of Gaza has been in effect in varying degrees of severity since 2006 in response to Hamas' rise to power in the strip.
"The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger," a senior adviser to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the time.
Now Palestinians are dying of hunger, and the world has increasingly had enough.
"Our boats carry more than aid," Global Sumud Flotilla said. "They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
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