Activists from the Canarias Insumisa group set an Israeli flag alight outside a sports arena in Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday night, ahead of a basketball game featuring Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Video footage of the act surfaced online ahead of Thursday night’s Round 13 EuroCup tip-off at Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas between the Israeli visitors and home team CB Gran Canaria.
Local media referred to the flag-burning as a “protest against the occupation and genocide that the Palestinian people are undergoing,” and to the false accusation that Israel “murdered 47,000 women, children and the elderly in one year” during its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Ynet reported.
Hapoel Tel Aviv supporters were referred to as “hooligans” in local reports, which cited the mass assault by local Muslims of Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. soccer fans in Amsterdam on Nov. 7.
“We saw how the Nazi Zionists ran amok in Amsterdam; we must be careful that these events do not happen again,” Ynet quoted Spanish media as saying.
Canarias Insumisa called for a boycott of the match, alleging that hosting it “legitimizes the murderous Zionist regime.”
The group also criticized the Spanish team’s owner, accusing him of “choosing silence and undermining our efforts,” claiming he had the chance to prevent the team from participating in the match but failed to do so.
This marks the second encounter between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Gran Canaria in Group A of the EuroCup. In their first matchup, Hapoel emerged with a 79-66 win. Gran Canaria enters the game ranked second in the group, boasting a 9-3 record, while Hapoel Tel Aviv sits in fourth place with a 7-5 record.
