'Enough trade with Israel': new protest against 'genocide' in Gaza draws 4,500

Around 4,500 people, according to the local police, took to the streets at Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia on Sunday early afternoon to protest against the "genocide" in Gaza.

In the latest of a series of rallies in the past few months ever since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, the Catalan capital was the site of one of the 100 simultaneous demonstrations in Spain to back Palestine.

"After four and a half months, we continue here because the massacre in Gaza continues in front of our eyes and the world's indifference," said Mazeed Khalilia, member of Catalonia's Palestinian Community.

"We demonstrate because this is the only tool to fight. We continue demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the end of the Zionist military occupation."

The demonstrators also called on the Spanish government to trade weapons with Israel. Indeed, activists say that while the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, recently said that trade of arms with the Middle Eastern country have been suspended, "Spain was the country that sold more weapons to Israel in November, worth €1 million," according to Samson Estapé, from Enough Complicity with Israel.

"The states are forgetting their responsibility in this genocide and ignoring the most basic international laws."

Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau was one of the politicians who joined the march. "This is a live genocide broadcast in social media, with more than 30,000 civilians dead," she said. "They do not save women, children, elderly people, journalists or doctors. It is unacceptable and all the red lines in international law have been crossed."

Colau also asked for the end of trading arms with Israel, who is "slaughtering defenseless people."