It might have looked like a scene from a prison in so-called ‘Israel’, but the appalling scenes actually unfolded at Bilbao airport. It wasn’t Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) beating peaceful Basque activists, but rather their own police force, the Ertzaintza, who smashed them with batons as they lay helpless on the ground.

More shockingly still, the activists had only just returned from captivity in ‘Israeli’ dungeons. They were participants in the heroic Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which sought to bring aid to Palestinians starved by Zionists’ grotesque restriction of aid to Gaza. As GSF explain:

When a family member, waiting anxiously in the arrivals terminal, attempted to cross a barrier to embrace their loved ones, the Ertzaintza suddenly and shockingly responded with violence. What should have been a moment of relief and familial comfort after such a harrowing experience was interrupted by even more brutality.

Among those attacked and beaten by the Basque police were individuals who had just recently been discharged from medical facilities to fly home, bearing severe, agonising injuries from their time in israel’s captivity, after being illegally abducted in European international waters. The Ertzaintza’s deployment of force against citizens in acute medical agony represents an unconscionable failure of basic humanity and continued display of systemic and colonial violence.

At least four people, including three flotilla participants, were subsequently arrested by Spanish state paramilitary police and are currently being held at Deusto police station in Bilbao.

Basque police’s deep ties with ‘Israel’

The GSF went on to describe the attack as a “chilling demonstration of interconnected global repression”. They cite the Ertzaintza’s:

deep, historical procurement pipelines, commercial contracts, and tactical training ties with israeli private security firms…

The Basque region is itself still colonised by Spain, and clearly its police force continues to operate with colonial tendencies. In a Substackpost, Ahmed Eldin elaborated on the Ertzaintza’s links with the Zionist entity, pointing out:

The Ertzaintza has purchased Israeli technology and equipment for years. Its phone-tapping system comes from Verint Systems, an Israeli company with deep ties to Israeli military intelligence. An Israeli firm, ICTS, has managed security at some of their facilities. They’ve used Israeli body armor, surveillance cameras, and listening devices.

Eldin said:

The Ertzaintza presents itself as a different kind of police force. Created in 1982 as part of Basque autonomy, it’s supposed to be more responsive to local communities, and less like the centralised Spanish national police.

The truth is, the Ertzaintza has a long-standing, multifaceted relationship with Israel that goes far beyond the Spanish government’s official positions on Palestine.

This is similar to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Another police force supposedly reconfigured to be more accountable to the population they ‘serve’, the PSNI have purchased software and body armour from so-called ‘Israel’.

The Palestine Laboratory

The Zionist entity operates a pipeline of violence and repression that begins with The Palestine Laboratory. Tools used to brutalise and surveil Palestinians are tested on them like human guinea pigs, then imported by repressive powers around the world for use on their own populations.

This is why the line “nobody is free until we’re all free” isn’t merely a slogan – it is a truism. As long as someone is being mistreated anywhere in the world, the methods used to subjugate them represent a danger to everyone else.

The flotilla activists represent a threat not only to so-called ‘Israel’, but to reactionary political ideals across the world. It’s harder to ram into people’s heads the idea of foreigners being unworthy of our help when people are risking their lives travelling thousands of miles to help those they’ve never met. Left-wing activists lionised for their heroism inherently represent a threat to the interests of capital in their home countries.

As Eldin points out:

When Israeli forces sexually assault, torture, and brutalise international activists bringing aid to Gaza, those actions send a clear message to every police force they’ve trained: “This is how you handle people who challenge us. And you should be doing the same.”

The Spanish government, like the Irish government, is not as pro-Palestine as an at-a-glance reading may suggest. In reality, the Irish government voted against sanctioning the Zionist settler-colony, even when its own citizens were being tortured there.

As Eldin points out, the Spanish state also continues to maintain economic ties with the Zionist entity. True solidarity with Palestine means following true Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy – severing all ties with so-called ‘Israel’ while it maintains its apartheid, genocidal policies against the Palestinian people.

Featured image via Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

By Robert Freeman

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