A massive demonstration runs through the center of Bilbao this Sunday amid shouts against the Ertzaintza for its actions in the incidents recorded yesterday at the Loiu airport in Biscay upon the arrival of activists from the Basque delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The march, called by Palestine in Elkartasuna, began after 1:00 p.m. behind a banner that read “Ertzaintza eta Eusko Jaurlaritza sionismoaren konplize! Sinonismo suntsitu. Palestine askatu” (Ertzaintza and Basque Government, accomplices of Zionism. Liberate Palestine).
At the beginning of the march, the police patrols that have gone ahead of the demonstration along the city’s Gran Vía have received whistles, insults and shouts of “murderous police.” The cries against him have continued during the tour, as have those of “Boycott Israel, Palestine askatu” and “PNV, Zionist.”
The banner has been carried, among others, by members of the pro-Palestinian flotilla, who have previously denounced at a press conference the actions of the Ertzaintza in the incidents at the Loiu airport, where the Autonomous Police detained four people, two members of the flotilla arriving in Euskadi and two other people participating in a reception for the activists.
Israel summons the Spanish chargé d’affaires over the Bilbao incidents
This Sunday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Spanish charge d’affaires in the country, Francisca Pedrós, for a “clarification” meeting following the Ertzaintza’s action against Flotilla activists in Bilbao, accusing the Spanish Government of “hypocrisy” over the incident.
“The political director (of Israel’s Foreign Affairs, Yossi Amrani) pointed out the hypocrisy of the Spanish Government, which sends provocateurs to Israel and then condemns Israel for its legal actions to reinforce its legal naval blockade (of Gaza), while at the same time the Spanish authorities used serious violence against those same participants of the Flotilla,” reads a Foreign Affairs statement.
Foreign Affairs summoned Pedrós to meet with Amrani, who will also demand explanations from him as to why the Spanish Government “has not taken action so far against the Flotilla activist and Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek”, who was also detained in Israel for his participation in the initiative and whom this country accuses of maintaining ties with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
