I left Colombia for Europe the 7th of October, the same day the armed group of Hamas attacked a music festival in the territory occupied by the state of Israel. From the beginning of what has become a brutal and inhumane genocide against the Palestinian people, I was looking for marches in the countries I was visiting in Eastern Europe, but had no luck coinciding with any events until Saturday December 2nd, when I was finally able to take my camera to the rally supporting Palestinian liberation which marched along the streets of Madrid, starting in Atocha and ending at the doors of the Foreign Ministry.
The event served as a massive call to action for the Spanish government to cut diplomatic ties with Netanyahu’s government, for a permanent ceasefire to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government and army, and to put an end to the occupation and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Along with signs and flags, calls of “Netanyahu, murderer!” and “Israel murders, Europe sponsors!” echoed in the streets of the Spanish capital as the procession advanced towards the Plaza Mayor and the doors of the Ministry.
The keffiyeh, the traditional cloth which has become a symbol of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, was everywhere; most attendees were wearing it while holding signs and balloons with messages of peace and drawings of watermelons—another symbol representative of the struggle—and chanting for the end of the genocide that has murdered thousands of Palestinian civilians, many of them children.
The atmosphere was charged with the frustration and impotence of watching a genocide being committed live on millions of phone screens around the world every day for weeks, while the powerful governments of North America and Europe continue their indiscriminate support and financing of Israel’s armed forces, who have proven their lack of humanity day after day with their incessant bombings on the civil population and their TikTok videos in which they mock their victims and proudly show the world their crimes.
After the march ended, we all returned to our screens to see the situation had only gotten worse after the end of the supposed “humanitarian pause” that lasted only a few days. Until today, Israel continues to attack what’s left of the civilian population, hospitals, mosques, Red Cross ambulances, United Nations schools, and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, where, due to the lack of clean water, food, electricity, and basic medicines, diseases are spreading as quickly as the bombs, creating a humanitarian crisis almost as desperate as the military assault.
Meanwhile, the Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where the excuse of eliminating Hamas doesn’t exist, are still assaulting, murdering, and displacing the indigenous Palestinian people, making it even clearer that this so-called “war” is really a violent ethnic cleansing campaign designed to expel Palestinians from their historic lands.
Citizens of the world have demonstrated their solidarity against the war crimes we are witnessing in Palestine while many governments continue to support the Israeli government, excusing their actions as “self-defence”, which is illegal under international humanitarian laws and according to the 1907 Hague Regulations annexed to the Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, since Israel is an occupying state and doesn’t have the right to “defend” itself from Palestine, where there is no army. But when in its short history has Israel ever respected the UN or human rights laws? How many more innocents have to die until the world puts an end to this atrocity?
Laura Restrepo Ortega 