Pro-Palestine protesters occupy Barcelona's Cortés hotel, owner is Israeli tycoon

Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters have occupied Barcelona's city center Cortés Hotel, whose owner is an Israeli tycoon. 

Protestors raised their voices against what they call a genocide in Gaza, gathering at midday on Saturday in front of the hotel, which is located on 25 Santa Anna Street, just meters away from La Rambla boulevard. 

Dozens of people occupied the establishment's reception for around 30 minutes and lowered the flags of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union off the façade to exchange them for Palestinian flags. 

Some of the chants heard were 'Israel murderer of Palestinians' and 'It is not a war, it is a genocide,' similar to the ones heard hours later in a massive demonstration in the city center that saw 70,000 people, according to organizers, and 19,000 demonstrators, according to local Guàrdia Urbana police.

Cortés Hotel is owned by Israeli tycoon Haim Tsuff, number 42 of Forbes' Israel's richest people. He has business deals in oil, infrastructure and housing industries. 

"He is a businessman very linked with the Israeli government and the industries that take advantage of the military occupation of Palestine," Xoan, the action spokesperson, said. 

"The European population is forced to be mere spectators of a massacre, and we will not accept it. This is why we came to do a peaceful protest," he added.

"Antisemitism"

Barcelona's Jewish community (CIB.CAT) raised their concerns about the occupation and considered it a "brutal act of antisemitism."

The community urged Catalan authorities to condemn "all attacks on Jewish owners or Jewish citizens."

"We are not responsible for what is happening in Israel nor in Gaza, and we are not responsible for the suffering of Palestinians led by the terrorist group of Hamas, nor the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians driven by their terrorist actions," a statement release said.

"Blaming a whole group on what a part is doing is racism, and in this case going against Jews, is antisemitism," the text continued. In fact, CIB.CAT said that "blaming Jews and marking their properties was the start of Nazi Germany's Jewish genocide."

"This cannot be allowed, as it is a hate crime," Ramon Dorado, president of CIB.CAT, said to media outlets.

The Israeli ambassador in Spain, Rodica Radian-Gordon, also raised her voice against the hotel occupation, calling it a "brutal and antisemitism act" and asking for all attacks on Spanish or Israeli Jews to stop, including in "synagogues and their properties."