'Act against terrorism,' and denouncing 'genocide': How Jews and Palestinians in Catalonia live conflict

One year after Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, both the Palestinian and Jewish communities in Catalonia are remembering the events, the victims, and the turning point that this caused in the Middle East. 

Around 200 members of the Jewish Jabad Lubavitch community in the Catalan capital gathered in Barcelona's synagogue to pray for the 1,200 people who were killed and 240 were taken hostage, around 100 of whom are still in captivity.

On Sunday, 4,500 people demonstrated in Barcelona's city center to show support for Palestine and Lebanon with the motto 'Stop the genocide.' 

Over 41,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel's ground and air campaign in the past year, with the vast majority being women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities, which adds that many thousands more bodies are still left uncounted under rubble. 

In addition, the Catalan EU and foreign affairs minister, Jaume Duch, has stated that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has "overpassed the limits" of international law since Hamas' attacks one year ago.

"If Israel does not act, we will give a message that terrorism can act without limits"

Rabbi David Libersohn wrote a new book of the Torah in memory of those held hostage and prayed for victims and "for peace and wellbeing of all residents in the region," Libersohn said.

In an interview with Catalan News, Libersohn said that Israel is "doing their part right" in the Middle East.

Although the Jewish community is "worried" and that they are not interested in the war, "now is the moment to act," he said.

"If we do not act, we will give a message that terrorism can act without limits," Libersohn said. "What should be right is that a civilization, such as the Israeli one, should have the right to choose where to live."

During the interview, he said that media outlets and universities have attacked the Israeli picture and that they have felt "threatened."

In addition, the rabbi mentioned that Spain's recognition of the state of Palestine is a strategy of the Spanish government to "divert attention" away from their own domestic problems. "No one sensible thinks that Spain has a key role in international politics."

Shemtov Jané, a member of the Jabad Lubavitch community, said that "it has been a very difficult year" in which they had to grapple with the idea that a group of people going to a concert were "very dangerous people that need to be killed."

One day, it will be necessary to "find a moment to rethink the situation, to look for peace" between both civilizations, Jané said, that "unfortunately, or fortunately, they are living side by side."

"Either you reach an agreement or you disappear, and because none want to disappear, the only solution is an agreement," Jané added.

Palestinians denounce "genocide" and West Bank aggravation

The Palestinian community in Barcelona organized a protest on Sunday advocating for Spain to break “diplomatic, institutional, economic, sporting, and cultural” ties with Israel.

“Israel murders, Spain sponsors it,” was one of the chants heard during the demonstration, along with “Freedom for Palestine.”

Salah Jamal and Imad Tubassi are two Palestinians who arrived to Catalonia from Nablus, in the West Bank, and now live here. 

Salah left Nablus after the Israeli invasion of 1967. He is 72 years old and has been living in Barcelona for the past 55 years. Some of his family members still live in Palestine, and they verify the worsening of the situation in the last year. 

His life story is separated from Imad Tubassi's one by five decades, but they both share the same feeling of being expelled from their homeland. 

Salah came to Barcelona in 1969 to study medicine, a decision that was influenced by Israel's occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank in the Six-Day War, which caused the exodus of half a million Palestinians. 

The United Nations Security Council asked Israel to withdraw, but five decades after that, the occupation continues.

Imad left Nablus because he did not feel safe since the beginning of the war in Gaza. "It was full of Israeli soldiers, during the morning, at night… It is impossible to live there, it is not a safe country."

Four months after arriving in Barcelona, Imad is grateful for how welcomed he has felt here: "Catalonia is the best place that I could have gone to," he said. 

Imad's family, who is still in the West Bank, tell him the situation is still bad and that these are "complicated days," as Israel has sent troops to southern Lebanon and is threatening to counter-attack Iran.

Catalan foreign affairs minister: "The only solution is a cease-fire"

In an interview with Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, the Catalan minister for foreign affairs and the EU stated that Israel has "the right to defend itself" but that Netanyahu's government has "overstepped the limits of international law" since Hamas' attack last year.  

"Israel's response should have never affected civilians in Gaza and Lebanon," Jaume Duch pointed out. 

"The international community, not only the USA, should try to prevent the situation from escalating, but in the end, it is the responsibility of the countries that are involved in the conflict," he added.

"The only solution is a ceasefire," Duch concluded.