Guardiola, Rosalia and Hind Rajab: Spain has not forgotten Palestine

First, a concert on Thursday in Barcelona went viral when surprise guest Rosalia showed up - one of the most successful and influential Spanish singers of all time singing her hit song La Perla.

She was one of a number of Spanish and Palestinian artists to perform, and the coach of Premier League football team Manchester City Pep Guardiola also gave a speech.

"This is a protest for Palestine, and a protest for humanity," Guardiola said. "I always think: 'What must they be thinking?' And I think, that we have left them alone, abandoned them. Those in power are cowards, because they basically send innocent young people to kill innocent people."

On the same day a giant portrait of Hind Rajab was unfurled on the beach in Barcelona. Rajab was a five-year-old girl who became a symbol of Palestinian suffering when her last words were heard around the world. 

Trapped in a car under Israeli fire, she called emergency services on her phone and spent hours begging for someone to save her as her family lay dead around her. Two ambulance workers were later found dead next to the bodies of Hind and her family.

Her story was retold in the film The Voice of Hind Rajab. It has been nominated for an Oscar, and on Thursday her mother Saja Kilani spoke in Barcelona on the second anniversary of her death.

"Today Hind represents all the children of Gaza," she said. "Her name has become a crime. Her image has become testimony. Drawing Hind in the sand means saying this. Even if they try to erase the truth, the truth will return, even if the sea washes it away."

This week an Israeli army official accepted that over 70,000 Palestinians had been killed since the beginning of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Killings since ceasefire

A ceasefire was declared last October, but more than 500 Palestinians have been killed since it came into force.

Spain has been an outspoken critic of Israel's military campaign and on Sunday in Madrid protesters braved the rain to protest against what they say is an "ongoing genocide."

"They were not military bases, they were hospitals,' and 'boycott Israel' were two of the chants heard on the streets of the Spanish capital, raising their voices in resistance to what they call a 'Colonial Plan' for Palestine and the US President Donald Trump's so-called 'Board of Peace.'

"There is no peace plan," Hector Grad, one of the organizers, told CGTN. "It is just a plan of recolonization and consolidation of the occupation by Israel of the total territory of Palestine."

Grad is a spokesperson for the Spanish Solidarity Network against the occupation of Palestine.

Another protester German Perez said: "The genocide continues. On Saturday, Israel bombed Palestine and more than 30 people were assassinated. So the solidarity, the international solidarity with Palestine has to continue."

The various pro-Palestine groups called for an immediate arms embargo against Israel, and an end to all economic and diplomatic ties.

They say this is a ceasefire in name only, as innocent lives continue to be lost.