Gernika-Palestine calls for protest during the stage of La Vuelta de Bilbao against the "genocide" of Israel over Gaza

The Gernika-Palestine popular initiative has called for protests against Israel on Wednesday, coinciding with the Return to Bilbao stage, to denounce Israel's "genocide" against Gaza and to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Gernika-Palestine held a press conference this Tuesday in Bilbao to report, among other things, on the rallies and caceroladas that will take place this Friday, 5 September.

The spokespersons for the popular initiative, Eneko Gerrikabeitia and Ibon Meñika, have also reported that they have joined the calls for this Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce the presence of the Israeli cycling team in the Vuelta.

With a view to the end of the Bilbao stage, they have called for the streets to be filled with Basque and Palestinian symbols in solidarity with Palestine and to denounce what is happening in Gaza.

Ibon Meñika has expressed his satisfaction with the mobilisation and attitude of Basque society, which in recent months "has made numerous statements denouncing the genocide that the Palestinian people are suffering and telling the State of Israel, Netanyahu, that this genocide must stop".

After calling for a ceasefire, Meñika has said that international bodies must put in place "all mechanisms" to "judge Netanyahu and his genocidal government and ensure that the Palestinian people are free and in full possession of their rights to live their future in dignity."

Faced with this situation, several initiatives have been proposed from Gernika-Palestine, some of them for the passage of the Return through Navarre and Bizkaia. In this regard, they have made a special appeal for the end of the stage that will take place this Wednesday in Bilbao, "through Basque and Palestinian symbols", to reflect the solidarity of Euskal Herria with Palestine, and to denounce "a truly visible reality".

In the same vein, the Bermeo City Council has called on the citizens, while the Vuelta will pass through the Biscay town on Wednesday, to carry "all kinds of symbols for Palestine" to denounce the "genocide" that is taking place. "We want it to be a peaceful protest against the sentiment of the people of Bermeo," explained Mayor Nadia Nemeh.

Cycling team.

On the other hand, from Gernika-Palestine, they blame the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale in French) and the organizers of the race for allowing the Israel-Premier Tech team to participate, which they regret is considered an "ambassador of the State of Israel." For this reason, members of the popular initiative accuse them of being "ambassadors of a genocidal state," and "praise the relations, ties and attachment of directors and leaders to Netanyahu."

That being the case, they stress that it cannot be that such a team operates normally in an international competition "with all the impunity in the world."

After stressing that the UCI is "one of the most responsible for deciding whether or not this team can participate in international competitions", Gernika-Palestine has stated that "there are different responsibilities that can be taken into account at the institutional and competitive level", so that the organizers of the Vuelta "can directly call on the UCI to prevent such teams from attending their event", according to the popular initiative.

They have also strongly criticised the organisers' attitude: "Although they may not oppose the accusations and demonstrations being made by different groups of citizens, they have been removing Palestinian flags along the way, which is not the responsibility of the ICU, but only of the organisation of the Return."

Caceroladas

Since Gernika-Palestine, they have also called on this Thursday at 7 p.m. to take part in a cacerolada in front of the town councils to "raise their voices", to imagine that they are "fed up" with the situation in Gaza and to demand that steps be taken to "put an end to this genocide as soon as possible".

Finally, with regard to the campaign of the solidarity handkerchief promoted at the summer holidays to spread a message of solidarity with the Palestinian people, Meñika has indicated that more than 30,000 handkerchiefs have already been sold and has announced that it will continue to promote this initiative at the September and October holidays.