The protests continue after the arrest by the Israeli army of the flotilla traveling to Gaza. Barcelona has almost 24 hours of uninterrupted protests since Thursday night, which began with a mass demonstration with 15,000 people to demand the end of genocide and the release of the crew crews.
On the morning of this Friday it has been the turn of a thousand students and, in the afternoon, several hundred people have taken over and organized a new march, which has started in the Urquinaona Plaça and plans to reach the Plaça de la Carbonera. There is a camping that is defined as “permanent and indefinite” until the “genocide” in Gaza ends.
The afternoon march, headed by a banner in which the rupture of relations with Israel was called and was urged to boycott, has made a tour very similar to that of the morning demonstration that, in that case, has left from Plaça Universitat.
Framed on a strike day convened by the Syndicat d'Estudentnts dels Països Catalans (SEPC), students have stopped the school activity in the UAB, some faculties of the UB and the UPC. The spokeswoman of the union, Tània Ros, has assured that the mobilization of the morning has been “only the beginning” and that the students “will continue to the front line to stop everything” until the situation is resolved.
Since the first hour in Puertes, the student movement has activated informative pickets and cuts to the accesses of various campuses. More than a hundred UAB students have blocked with containers the main road accesses to the campus and also entry into the Railways of the Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) from the Civic Square.
As explained by the student spokesmen, about 150 people have spent the night in the Faculty of Letters to prepare the protest and around 6:30 they have mobilized containers to the access roundabouts from the AP-7, from Bellaterra and from Cerdanyola. A moment of tension has been lived when a worker who has reached the campus with FGC wanted to cross a barricade by force and has been faced with students.
In the UPC, about fifty students have blocked the main accesses to the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) on the occasion of the student strike. The young people spent the night in the building and this morning they used tables and chairs to cut the faculty accesses. As explained by the spokeswoman for the protest, Lia Casadevall, the main reason for the action is to demand from public universities the rupture of any link with Israel and “stop normality” in the classroom before the genocide.
After the actions on their campus, the students have addressed to the center of Barcelona, from where they have started a march towards the Plaça de la Carbonera, where some 50 people remain camping since Thursday night in protest to Israeli genocide. The protesters have advanced chanting songs such as “boat, boat, boat, Zionist who does not boat” or “no, no, no, Israel is not a country, it is an occupation.”
The camping, located between the World Trade Center and Pararal·lel Avenue, has about twenty tents and several awnings. One of the spokesmen of the Fleet Support Movement, Judit Piñol, explained that they have slept “very quiet.” Piñol has emphasized the “solidarity” character of mobilization, since the camping has been made with material that has led people. Piñol has stressed that “the camping is indefinite” and has conditioned up “to the real, effective and immediate breakdown of commercial relations with the Israel government.”
Road cuts
In addition to the protests framed in the universities, Catalunya has also lived highway cuts early in the morning that have affected the AP-7 highway at the height of Sant Celoni, in the direction of Barcelona.
One of the main traffic routes in Catalonia, has remained cut south at the height of Sant Celoni (Vallès Oriental) for more than half an hour, due to a demonstration for denouncing the genocide in Gaza and the assault on the Global Sumud flotilla. Sources from the Catalan Traffic Service (SCT) have reported, which point out that the road blockade has begun at 07.25 on Friday and has already finished, although at 8:20 hours there were still two kilometers of tail.
Another traffic cut has occurred in Manresa. A student demonstration has closed the C-25 via in both directions of the march for several minutes. The protesters carried banners where they read 'have assaulted the flotilla, we empty the classrooms' and 'against genocidal imperialism, free Palestine'.
Extraordinary Plenary in Barcelona to condemn the arrest
The Barcelona City Council has approved an institutional statement, agreed on Thursday by most municipal groups, in which the assault on the Global Sumud and the genocide in Gaza condemns. The text, agreed by Junts, PSC, Comuns and ERC, has prospered in an extraordinary plenary session that has been held this Friday. The document denounces Israel's action against a humanitarian mission with origin in Barcelona and claims the immediate release of the detainees, including the Councilor for ERC Jordi Coronas and the former mayor Ada Colau.
In addition, they ask the Spanish government for a firm response, the prosecution that investigates the facts, and the international community that requires responsibilities for possible war crimes. They also request the fire and the end of the occupation. The mayor of Barcelona has opened to the session remembering that there is a “exceptional” moment because of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “for the genocidal attitude of the Government of Israel” and because “there is a councilor and a former mayor affected by the retention of the Government of Israel as a result of the approach, also illegal.”
The four municipal groups that have supported this statement have been responsible for reading in parts. The first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, has read the first two points on behalf of the PSC; the Councilor for Bcomú, Marc Serra, points 3 and 4; Rosa Suriñac (ERC), those corresponding to 5 and 6 and, finally, the councilor of Junts for Barcelona, Neus Munté, has made the reading of the last part.