Alyssa Mcmurtry
22 February 2025•Update: 23 February 2025
OVIEDO, Spain
Pro-Palestinian protesters banged pots and pans outside of the American Embassy in Madrid Saturday, calling for an end to ethnic cleansing in Gaza and criticizing the US administration’s plan for the enclave.
“Palestine is not for sale,” was the slogan of the protests, which are also taking place in dozens of other cities throughout the weekend.
Spanish news agency EFE reported that around 1,000 protesters participated in the demonstration in Madrid.
The organizers, Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP), said in a statement that US President Donald Trump’s plan to turn Gazza into the “Riveria of the Middle East” will continue Israel’s ethnic cleansing.
“The EU is totally blocked, silent, and paralyzed, especially since the new high representative Kaja Kallas took office. The EU should end its complicity with Israel’s crimes,” the organization demanded, calling for it to suspend the bloc’s association agreement with Israel.
The group also called on Spain to break all ties with Israel and apply more sanctions.
Organizers expressed relief that a ceasefire deal had been reached but described it as fragile and insufficient to protect Palestinians.
“It does not end Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing and brutal repression. It does not end decades of colonization… and it certainly does not erase decades' worth of crimes committed by Israel that have been denounced by the UN,” the statement reads.
RESCOP added that it would not stop organizing protests until Spain ends all “complicity with Israel” and “Palestine is free from the river to the sea.”
“We must demand the reconstruction of all the destruction caused by Israel,” the group added.
