A huge crowd has danced through the streets of a Spanish city with a giant banner reading “Destroy Israel” at the San Fermín festival.

Giant watermelons, the symbol of Palestine, also bounced around the crowd.

Revellers were celebrating the opening of the San Fermín festival in Pamplona. The protest turned one of Spain’s best-known events into an anti-genocide platform.

San Fermín 2026 attendees make a stand

The banners were created by EHKS, the Basque socialist organisation. Spain’s socialist president, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of very few European political leaders to take any kind of stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its other crimes.

As in most European countries, however, Spanish police have continued to treat peaceful protesters and activists with inexcusable brutality.

Meltdown

Predictably, the global Israel lobby coordinated a giant freak-out.

The so-called ‘Combat Antisemitism Movement’ (CAM) described watermelons as a “well-known antisemitic symbol”. In an X post, it also claimed that the festival “continues to platform antisemitic incidents year after year”.

CAM is a notorious pro-Israel front that conflates Israel and Jewish people, itself an antisemitic move.

Among the supposed “antisemitic incidents” was the city’s mayor inviting the “Navarre Stands With Palestine” activist group to shoot off the firework that begins the proceedings in 2025.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) claimed the banner “promotes hatred”. Clearly genocide is fine, then. It also claimed:

Calls for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state go far beyond legitimate political expression. Such rhetoric promotes hatred, fuels hostility and contributes to an environment in which antisemitism is increasingly normalised.

Featured image via Vincent West/ Reuters

By Skwawkbox

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