This Monday, Podemos asked the Government to prevent the Maccabi Tel Aviv team and fans from entering Spain, which is scheduled to play a Euroleague basketball game with Real Madrid tomorrow, Tuesday. The request, which seeks to prevent the meeting from being held in the capital, has been addressed by letter to both the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. “We don’t want the fans to apologize for the genocide,” the Podemos Organization Secretary, Pablo Fernández, justified at a press conference. Last November, a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv (in this case the football team) led to clashes between the two fans that resulted in the arrest of 62 people.
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, Podemos has been very belligerent with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Executive and has made the Palestinian cause one of its main banners, both in Spanish politics and in the European Parliament, where with the former Minister Irene Montero at the head, tries to make noise with this matter. In the letter, sent by the general secretary of the party, Ione Belarra describes“unacceptable”maintain relations of any kind with a country that commits “genocide” and asks the Executive to act to “guarantee respect for Human Rights and avoid incidents.”
“In recent months we have experienced on several occasions the disruptions caused by extremist groups linked to Israeli sports teams, such as those that took place in Amsterdam in November of last year, where serious riots occurred after carrying out acts of violence, Islamophobia and advocacy of genocide that is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people. In addition to lack of respect and consideration for the victims of the damage that had occurred a few days before in Spain. “This is not the first time that violent groups of these characteristics have carried out similar events, such as those that occurred in Bilbao in 2022, in which the Hapoel Holon ultras participated,” the letter reads.
“In order to guarantee respect for Human Rights and avoid incidents, we request that, in the exercise of their respective powers, they adopt appropriate security measures to prevent the entry into the country of entities and people that support and provide coverage to a genocide and the cessation of any relationship with whoever perpetrates it,” Belarra’s writing concludes.
This morning, the leftist party has once again linked the support of its four deputies for the next Budget to the Government breaking diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel. A condition that the Foreign Ministry has already rejected.
