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Students Stage Walkouts in Dozens of Spanish Cities to 'Stop the Genocide' in Gaza
"While young people like us are being killed and subjected to genocide in Palestine, we cannot be in class," said one protester in Madrid.
Oct 02, 2025
Tens of thousands of students walked out of classrooms in cities and towns across Spain on Thursday to protest Israel's ongoing US-backed genocide in Gaza and abduction of Global Sumud Flotilla members, dozens of whom are Spanish.
The National Students' Union organized Thursday's protests under the slogan "stop the genocide against the Palestinian people." Demonstrations, which took part in at least 39 cities and towns, varied in size from small groups to thousands who turned out in Barcelona and the capital Madrid, where students held banners with messages like "Stop Everything to Stop the Genocide," "All Eyes on the Global Sumud Flotilla," and "Free Palestine!"
"We're not going to look the other way," the union said in a statement. "The Palestinian cause is the cause of the youth and the millions who stand for human rights and social justice. That is why... we called the general student strike to empty the classrooms and fill the streets with dignity."
Maria, a Spanish student interviewed by Turkey's Anadolu Ajansı in Madrid, said: "While young people like us are being killed and subjected to genocide in Palestine, we cannot be in class. The whole world must do everything it can to stop this genocide.”
Another Madrid protester, Francesca—an Italian student studying in Spain—told Anadolu that “we must pressure governments to stop Israel."
"Allowing genocide in full view of the world is unacceptable," she added. "The killing of women, children, and students in Palestine must end."
In Barcelona—whose former leftist Mayor Ada Colau was among the dozens of Spaniards who set sail for Gaza from the port city—an estimated 6,500 students and others took to the streets Thursday.
"What I can do is be here, with my presence," student Donia Armani told El País. "The more people, the better; so the Palestinians will not be alone."
Armani's mother added, “The Palestinians are like a brotherly people, we feel a lot from the absurd images we see."
Ana, a 14-year-old student protesting in Barcelona, said: “I think it’s very bad what’s happening," adding that Israel does "not let food arrive and also bombs them, which causes many, especially small children, to die, and I am very sorry."
Thursday's walkouts took place as Israeli forces continued assaulting Gaza on Thursday, killing scores of Palestinians amid a backdrop of ongoing famine and forced displacement. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 66,225 Palestinians in Gaza, although experts say the actual death toll is much higher. At least 168,938 other Palestinians have been wounded, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
Spain's socialist-led government has been a leading critic of Israel's genocide in Gaza, taking numerous proactive steps including cutting off arms transfers to the erstwhile ally, prohibiting the shipment of fuel to the Israeli military, formally recognizing Palestinian statehood, and backing South Africa's genocide case currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry says at least 30 Spaniards are among the many Global Sumud Flotilla activists seized by Israeli forces in international waters overnight Thursday while attempting to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.
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Barcelona City Council Suspends Ties With Israel Over Gaza Slaughter
"It's not a war, it's a genocide," said Councilmember Ada Colau. "We not only need to denounce it, we must act and not stay on the sidelines."
Nov 24, 2023
The city council of Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city, voted Friday to suspend relations with Israel's far-right government over what the party behind the move called the "genocide" in Gaza.
Introduced by the leftist Barcelona en Comú party—which asserted that "no government can turn a blind eye to a genocide"—the resolution demands the municipal government discontinue "institutional relations with the current government of Israel until there is a definitive cease-fire, and respect for the basic rights of the Palestinian people and compliance with United Nations resolutions are guaranteed."
The resolution also calls for requiring public contracts to ensure that "no operator belongs to or carries out" activities "that go against international humanitarian law" and "rejects and condemns attacks against the population civilian, both Israeli and Palestinian, as well as any action constituting collective punishment, such as the forced displacement of population, the systematic destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, or the blocking of the supply of energy, water, food, medical supplies and medicines to the population of the Gaza Strip."
Barcelona en Comú Councilmember Ada Colau said in a statement that "it's not a war, it's a genocide, and as [Spanish] President Pedro Sánchez has stated, it is unbearable, and if it is unbearable, we not only need to denounce it, we must act and not stay on the sidelines."
"Every 10 minutes, a child dies in the Gaza Strip under the bombs of one of the most powerful armies in the world," she added.
Colau, whose eight-year tenure as Barcelona's mayor ended in June, earlier this year
announced her city was cutting ties with Israel and ending its symbolic 25-year-old "twin cities" relationship with Tel Aviv due to the Israeli government's "crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people."
Barcelona's current mayor, Jaume Collboni of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, reversed Colau's move in September.
Earlier this month, Barcelona dockworkers also showed solidarity with Palestinians by refusing to load or unload military materials onto any ship bound for Israel or any conflict zone where they could be used against civilians.
The new Barcelona resolution urges Israel and Hamas to make permanent the temporary four-day ceasefire that began Friday morning, as well as an end to Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the illegally occupied West Bank and the unconditional and safe release of all hostages taken by Hamas.
On Friday, Hamas freed 24 captives—13 Israeli women and children, 10 Thai nationals, and one Filipino—as part of the cease-fire agreement. Israel released 39 Palestinian women and minors from behind bars to fulfill its end of the deal. Hamas has agreed to free 50 of its hostages in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israeli forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians on what critics claim are often dubious grounds meant to give Israel leverage and bargaining chips.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly 15,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 women and over 6,000 children, have been
killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that left around 1,200 people dead and 240 others kidnapped. The international humanitarian group Oxfam
said Thursday that newborn babies are dying from preventable causes in Gaza's hospitals due to the Israeli siege.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli attacks on Gaza, while around 7,000 others—including over 4,700 children—are missing and presumed dead. More than 1.7 million Gazans have been forcibly displaced and around half the homes in the besieged strip have been damaged or destroyed, according to United Nations agencies.
At least 255 Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In addition to the Barcelona councilmembers who voted Friday for the resolution, other Spanish officials have also called for cutting ties with Israel's government over its Gaza onslaught.
Last month, outgoing Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra, who also leads the leftist Podemos party, urged her country's coalition government to petition the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza and for cutting off food, fuel, and electricity from the besieged strip's 2.3 million residents.
On Thursday, Belarra criticized Sánchez—a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party—for visiting Israel this week, arguing that his trip "only serves to whitewash Netanyahu and to equate the state of Israel, an occupying power that perpetrates a genocide, with the victims of the Palestinian people."
"Such inaction," she added, "is absolutely unbearable."
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Barcelona Dockworkers Vow Not to Load Weapons for Israel or Any Conflict Zone
The move builds on a growing number of direct actions targeting weapons bound for Israel as its bombardment of Gaza has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Nov 07, 2023
The union representing Barcelona's dockworkers promised Monday not to load or unload military materials onto any ship bound for Israel or another warzone where they could be used against civilians.
In their statement, the Organization of Port Stevedores of Barcelona, OEPB in Catalan, called for a cease-fire in Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, and every other global conflict.
"We have decided... not to allow shipping activity in our port that contains military equipment, with the sole purpose of protecting any civilian population in any territory," the union wrote. "No cause justifies sacrificing civilians."
OEPB said it was its duty as a workers' organization to "respect and vehemently defend" the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—"Human rights that appear to have been forgotten by the countries that have signed their Magna Carta, and that are now being violated in Ukraine, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and other parts of the planet."
The union's statement came as the death toll from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 10,000. Hamas also killed 1,400 in the October 7 attack on Israel that launched the current bout of open conflict, though Gaza has been under Israeli blockade for 16 years. At least 9,614 civilians have been killed in Ukraine between when Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, and September 10, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
In addition to calling for a cease-fire in all global hostilities, the OEPB called on the United Nations specifically to "cease its posture of complicity through inaction" and return to its mission of preserving international peace and security, protecting human rights, distributing humanitarian aid, supporting sustainable development and climate action, and protecting international rights.
"We, several unions active in ground logistics, call on our members not to handle any flights that ship military equipment to Palestine/Israel."
It's unsure how many weapons the OEPB's promise will actually stop from reaching their destination, according to Reuters. Spain exported 1.3 billion euros in military equipment during the first half of 2022, with 9 million of that sent to Israel. However, the Spanish government has said it does not plan to export any deadly weapons to Israel to use in its current attack on Gaza.
OEPB secretary Josep Maria Deop told Reuters Tuesday that the statement was largely symbolic and intended to encourage other Spanish ports to follow his union's example. But he said that military equipment did likely ship from Barcelona and that peace organizations could help the union pinpoint which vessels to avoid.
The move also builds on a growing number of direct actions targeting weapons bound for Israel. It came a week after four Belgian transport unions issued a statement urging their members not to handle Israel-bound military equipment, as Reuters reported at the time.
"While a genocide is under way in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium are seeing arms shipments in the direction of the war zone," the unions said.
"We, several unions active in ground logistics, call on our members not to handle any flights that ship military equipment to Palestine/Israel, like there were clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine," their statement continued.
Protesters also attempted to block the MV Cape Orlando from leaving the ports of Oakland and Tacoma after receiving word it was being loaded with weapons destined for Israel. They delayed its progress for nine hours in Oakland on Friday and more than eight in Tacoma on Monday.
Also on Monday, more than 75 activists blocked the entrances to a Boeing plant in Missouri that manufactures bombs used by Israel in Gaza, as Middle East Eye reported. The plant had provided Israel with nearly 1,000 bombs including Small Diameter Bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
"We are joining millions of people across the U.S. and around the world in demanding an end to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza and its decades-long occupation of Palestine," Ellie Tang, an organizer with the anti-war group Dissenters, told Middle East Eye.
The protest, which also included members of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and Resist STL, prevented Boeing workers from entering the plant for a few hours Monday morning, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Members of Palestine Action in the U.K. and Palestine Action U.S. have also carried out several direct actions targeting weapons makers, in particular Elbit Systems, which is Israel's largest arms manufacturer. On Monday, Palestine Action blockaded an Elbit factory in Kent, after which three protesters were arrested. On Tuesday, they blocked off the entrance to Elbit headquarters in Bristol.
In Bristol, police arrested four protesters and took more than three hours to remove the blockade once they arrived, the group said.
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