A group of pro-Palestine protesters from the platform ‘Enough complicity with Israel’ occupied the headquarters of ACCIÓ, the Catalan Government’s company competitiveness agency, this Wednesday morning to demand the closure of its office in Tel Aviv.
The protesters have entered the building, located on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona, and have called on more people to join the protest. The coalition against the war in Gaza also demands that the new government leaving the elections held last Sunday break relations with Israel.
Hours later, the Mossos d’Esquadra began the eviction and there were scenes of tension at the doors of the Department of Business, with blows and shoving by the riot police when a group of people with little clothing and on their knees made a peaceful action to denounce the harsh conditions in Palestinian prisons.
The activists planned to call a press conference to denounce “ACCIÓ’s links with apartheid and Israeli colonialism.” According to a spokeswoman, the demands to close the office in Tel Aviv and break relations with Israel demand an “end to the repression” of the Palestinian state and its citizens since Israel intensified the offensive in the Gaza Strip after the attack Hamas on October 7.
Access to the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) by Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat (FGC) and to the central building and the Raval campus of the University of Barcelona (UB) are closed from early in the morning on the occasion of the day. of mobilizations called by students for this Wednesday in support of Palestine.
According to what the spokesperson for the Union of Students of Catalan Countries (SEPC) at the UAB, Laura Pinyol, told EFE, at this university “access by road or by Renfe Rodalies has not been cut off”, since the trains are not They arrive on campus due to the incident that occurred this weekend and that affects the circulation of several train lines. The spokesperson has also stated that student attendance at the UAB “is being minimal” and that “the presence of information pickets is almost symbolic.”
The SEPC and the assembly of the Acampada of the University of Barcelona (UB) for Palestine have called on university and high school students to a day of strike and the demonstration that will start this afternoon at the Plaça Universitat in Barcelona, coinciding with the 76 anniversary of the Nakba, the Palestinian exodus. “The Autonomous Community rises to end the genocide against the Palestinian people, to end the complicity of the educational community and to weave the international solidarity of the Catalan Countries in Palestine. Today the classrooms will fill the streets, today the students are on a warpath,” the spokesperson indicated.
Access to the FGC station has been cut off with a barricade of tables and chairs, the students have launched flares early in the morning and in the same Civic Square they have painted graffiti that reads “Israel murders, Europe sponsors ”.
To prepare for this Wednesday’s mobilization, about seventy students have spent this night camping in the Civic Plaza on the UAB campus, but they will not continue sleeping there in the following nights, since “the pro-Palestinian camp is concentrated in the historic building.” from the UB”, added Laura Pinyol. The concentration of university students began at noon in the Catalan capital.
On the other hand, according to the SEPC, the door that gives access to the historic UB building is closed and a banner has been hung on it with the message “Palestine freedom. Let’s stop the genocide”, and also in front of the Faculty of Philology and Communication of the UB, another banner has been hung with the message “Schools are not bombed. The educational community, with Palestine.”
Likewise, on the fence that leads to the camping area, the students have hung another one that reads “Students, with Palestine.” Likewise, they have reported that container access to the UB Raval campus has been cut off.