Anti-Israel protesters rioted in the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Valencia on Wednesday during a controversial general strike for Gaza, which labor unions staged despite a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
During a protest by about 15,000 people, according to the Guardia Urbana, the municipal police of Barcelona, rioters set containers on fire and hurled stones at the facades of businesses accused of supporting Israel, including Starbucks and McDonald’s, the RTVE broadcaster reported. Firefighters put out the flames, and police arrested 15 people in Barcelona, 11 of whom were minors, according to the RTVE report.
Meanwhile, in Valencia in the southern part of the country, about 1,000 people participated in anti-Israel demonstrations ahead of a basketball game between Bàsquet Manresa and the Hapoel Jerusalem team. At least five protesters were arrested outside the Roig Arena, where the game was being played.
On the authorities’ advice, the Israeli players were checked out of their hotel in Valencia and moved to another during the match, for fear that protesters would surround the hotel and riot there, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.
The strike generated heated criticism in Spain, not only because it disrupted commerce and traffic over a foreign policy issue with little bearing on the daily lives of Spaniards, but also because it occurred five days after a ceasefire went into effect that ended the bloodshed that the demonstrators were ostensibly protesting against.
The Federation of Businesses of La Rioja (FER), a region in northern Spain, was among the critics of the strike organized by three major labor unions—CGT, UGT and CC.OO—calling it a “failure” in a statement that focused on the strike’s alleged ineffectiveness.
“The unions’ call had little impact on companies, with virtually no participation. Therefore, we insist that the result of the call was a failure,” FER wrote, adding that the strike was about “an event unrelated to business activity, which ultimately ends up damaging and harming our companies and their workers.”
The Coordinadora contra el Antisemitismo, a national platform of pro-Israel and Jewish groups, also condemned the strike, protesting organizers’ characterization of Israel’s actions against Hamas as a “genocide,” as well as the strike’s timing.
“We are astonished to witness the first general strike called in more than seven years, which, moreover, is unconnected to any labor or union-related issue,” the Coordinaria wrote. “It strictly and ideologically follows a specific and profoundly antisemitic and anti-Israeli political agenda that seeks to boycott the only peace plan developed in more than 20 years, a proposal supported by the majority of Arab countries in the region, Israel, the countries most directly involved, and the Palestinian people themselves,” the statement added.
The alleged genocide in Gaza, the Coordinaria added, “is patently false [and the fact that the strike is] taking place in the middle of a peace process not only refutes [the genocide charge], but could also harm [the peace process].”
Among E.U. member states, Spain under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Socialist-led government has led an unusually hostile policy toward Israel, accusing it of committing a genocide, imposing an arms embargo on Israel and joining the South African International Court of Justice lawsuit against Israel.
Critics of the Sanchez government have accused it of using the Gaza war to distract from corruption scandals.
