Students and families repaint 'censored' Palestinian 'Guernica' mural

Students from various schools in Sant Cugat del Vallès, just outside Barcelona, have – along with their families – repainted a full-scale replica of Pablo Picasso's 'Guernica' in the colors of the Palestinian flag, which they say the local council "censored" in November. 

The new work was hung from a wall in the Monastery of Sant Cugat after a previous mural made by pupils at Pins del Vallès primary school was ordered to be removed. 

At the event in the city's Plaça Octavia, one of the organizers, Riki Benito, a member of Families of Sant Cugat with Palestine, said rehanging the mural had two purposes – "to call for solidarity with the Palestinian people," and to highlight the municipal government's "attempt to silence" them. 

Sant Cugat City Council justified the removal of the mural from the school, Benito said, because it showed a "partial position," while, in the Israel-Gaza conflict, a "neutral" position should be adopted. 

Benito said the council's viewpoint was "hypocritical," since there was "the precedent of the war in Ukraine," which was discussed in classrooms, was the subject of exhibitions and "was spoken about proactively." 

Council sources asked about the matter referred the Catalan News Agency (ACN) to a notice published in December on the council's website, when the councilor responsible for education, Carme Ardid, asked all schools in the city not to take a position in the war in Gaza.