A hundred people gathered on the afternoon of January 8 in front of the Movistar Arena stadium in Madrid to protest against the participation of the Israeli team Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv in the Euroleague basketball team. The action has been promoted by the Israel Sports Boycott Platform, which brings together various pro-Palestinian groups and movements from all over Spain.
““Sport is one of the instruments that Israel uses to normalize its existence, when it remains a colonial entity and the genocide has not stopped.”has declared to Public one of the protesters present at the protest. “We are here to remember that what we have to do is isolate them on all possible fronts, economically and also culturally, where they continue to legitimize themselves.”
The action, which has been monitored by an important police force, has also been attended by the general secretary of Podemos and deputy, Ione Belarrawho has described Israel’s participation in the competition as a “whitewash” and has stated that the sporting event would not be taking place “if the Government of Spain had done what it has to do, which is break all relations with the genocidaires”.
The match was the fifth that an Israeli team played in Spain and, as in previous days, it had to be held behind closed doors for “security reasons”, according to the team itself. Euroleague. “I think they were afraid that a Palestinian flag would come out among the public,” said another protester. “It’s good that they had to do it behind closed doors, but “It is important to continue on the streets because the genocide is not over, far from it.”. Thus, the ultimate objective of the protest, as explained to Public several protesters, is to prevent the participation of either of the two Israeli teams – the Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv and the Hapoel Ibi Tel Aviv-in the competition to pressure Israel to end the occupation of Palestine.
After the day of January 8 – the 21st of the Euroleague – These clubs will play another four games against Spanish teams. On January 29, Maccabi Tel Aviv will face Basket València, while on April 7 and March 7 they will face Koser Baskonia. The last match that an Israeli club will play in the Spanish State will be on March 27, when Baskonia will play against Hapoel. The Israel Sports Boycott Platform has called for protests at all of these meetings.
Recent successes
The year 2025 showed that protests against Israel’s participation in cultural and sporting events have an important impact on Tel Aviv’s public image and influence among its historical allies. Thus, the mobilizations against the performance of the candidate Israel in Eurovision led the precursor organization of the event, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to reconsider Israel’s participation.
Although they finally decided to allow his action, five of the countries who have been performing in the competition for years, led by Spain, withdrew from the 2026 edition in protest. In addition, the Eurovision winners of the years 2024 and 1994 they gave up their awards.
Without a doubt, the highest point of pressure in the streets occurred in the summer of last year, against the participation of the Israel Premier Tech in the Vuelta Ciclista a España. What began as a small protest in the first stage, held in Figueres (Girona), ended up becoming a decentralized protest that mutated and adapted at each stage, until culminating in Madrid, with the cancellation of the end of this stage due to the massive influx of people against Israel’s participation in the cycling competition.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE)then expressed “admiration for a people like the Spanish that mobilize for just causes like that of Palestine.” This did not prevent the state security forces from carrying out mass identifications, sanctioning and, as denounced by some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, using excessive force against the protesters.
Recently, Several of the activists have received fines for participating in the actions that the President of the Government praised in the summer. As reported by the Platform of Solidarity with Palestine of Valladolid In an open letter, it was the same Government delegate in the province, Jacinto Canales, who signed the proposals for sanctions against the activists. Some of them, they say, relate facts that “lack the truth” and “contain inconsistencies.”
oblivion
By mid-September, Israel’s public image was so deteriorated that the European Commission (EC) proposed to the Council of the European Union the suspension of certain trade concessions with Israel included in the Association Agreement with the EU, in force since 2000, among other measures. It was the furthest the twenty-seven had gone in criticizing Israel for its continued attacks on human rights.
Before this proposal could be approved, Donald Trump, president of the United States, He broke the deck and, at the end of September, demanded that Israel stop the all-out offensive against the Gaza Strip. The change of direction of the Republican magnate – who just two weeks earlier had unequivocally defended Israel’s actions in front of the UN Assembly – is not only explained by the increase in pressure in the streets and, by extension, from some European governments.
Also, the Israeli attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar, a US ally in the region, was a turning point in the permissiveness with which Washington had treated Tel Aviv. Trump forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud)to negotiate an agreement to end the annihilation of Gaza. Both leaders closed the ceasefire conditions in the US at the beginning of October, without counting on the Palestinian side.
The first phase of Trump’s so-called “peace plan” ended in December 2025, after the exchange of hostages and the reduction of bombings on Gaza. Even so, during the three months of “ceasefire” more than 400 Palestinian civilians have been killed, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The second part of the plan, which should promote total withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave and its reconstructionis yet to be defined.
When it comes to the West Bank, the reality for Palestinians has become starker. The UN Human Rights Office published on January 7 a report in which he highlighted the worsening living conditions of Palestinians and warned that Israel’s segregation of Palestinians violates the ban on apartheid.
In other words: Despite the signing of the ceasefire, the colonial advance, apartheid and extermination have not stopped. If the objective conceived by Trump, as several analysts interpreted, was to deliver a coup d’état that would improve his own image, give security to his Arab allies and divert the focus of attention from the Middle East, it could be said that the American magnate has achieved what he wanted. At least, that’s how Raquel Martí, director of UNRWA in Spain, saw it, in a conversation with Public In December he denounced the lack of attention of the Spanish media to the situation of the Palestinians after the ceasefire.
Not only has the media focus on the Middle East relaxed in recent months, diverted by the increase in tension in the Caribbean. It has also weakened push by the Spanish Government to impose measures that punish Israel’s intervention in Palestine and pressure to reverse Israel’s colonial advance. At the end of 2025, Eldiario.es made public information that showed that Spain had authorized transfers of military material to Israel three months after the arms embargo. “This has revealed the economic plot that Israel has with European countries,” said a pro-Palestinian protester during protests against Israel’s participation in the Euroleague basketball tournament. “I don’t like what the Government has done, but We depend on Israel for all our technological activity“he lamented.
