“We are here to demand a change from Europe and Spain, to move from words to actions. “Humanity is in danger every day in Palestine.” With these words, the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has warned of the unsustainable situation of the Palestinian population, which she has experienced first-hand as a participant in an international delegation, of which the Commons MEP Jaume Asens is also a member, and who was attacked with tear gas by Israeli soldiers. “The situation is much worse than we were aware of,” Colau acknowledged in an appearance at Ramallah City Hall in which he recalled that Barcelona broke relations with Tel Aviv two years ago due to “apartheid, illegal occupation and rape.” of human rights.” And he has asked the EU and Spain to do the same. “It could be done with Russia but it cannot be done with Israel?” he asked.
“We need basic facts such as a total arms embargo, economic sanctions on Israel and suspending relations with a State that is violating international legality and human rights,” claimed Colau, who has acknowledged that she feels “shame” as a European citizen. “The word is impunity,” he said about the reaction that the EU and the international community have with Tel Aviv before remembering that only yesterday Israel decided to prohibit the action of the UN agency UNRWA in the Palestinian territory, killing dozens of people in Gaza and continued “indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population in Lebanon.” “It has continued to violate international legality and human rights,” he reiterated.
Asens has also denounced the “double standards” and “hypocrisy” of the EU and the United States. “We have come to do what Western governments do not do. The genocide suffered by Gaza and the systematic violations of law in the West Bank are the responsibility of Israel”: “What is valid for Russia should be valid for Israel, what is valid for the Ukrainian population should be valid for the Palestinian population.”
Although he has conceded that the Government of Spain has done “a lot” in relation to the conflict, he has warned that “it is not enough.” “We want Spain to be the spearhead, the vanguard, in the defense of rights in Europe.” Among the requests to the coalition, Asens has included a reform of the arms trade law, although he has admitted that the right – referring to PP, Vox and Junts – will not support it because they are “supporting genocide”: “It is difficult for “That law comes out, but we have to try.”
Colau and Asens’s words come after they suffered a tear gas attack by Israeli soldiers when they accompanied “peaceful and unarmed farmers” to pick olives in Qusra. “We were able to experience firsthand what the people of Palestine suffer every day, they even attacked us. The soldiers did not speak to anyone, they directly attacked with tear gas and sound grenades, they endangered the lives of people who were present there,” said Colau, who assured that a similar situation would have been a “scandal” in international diplomacy. . “For me it is the least important, because it is what the Palestinian people suffer every day: human rights violations with total impunity,” he said.
Colau explained that after the attack the consul in Jerusalem and the secretary of the Foreign Ministry contacted them to “worry” about their health: “I responded that luckily we were in good health, but that we could have been seriously injured. by the Israeli army and by the presence of armed settlers.”
“The Government of Spain, which wants to be a democratic government committed to human rights and international legality, must be concerned about Israel’s systematic violation of human rights against the people of Palestine,” the former mayor said: “It can be done a lot more”.
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