Thousands of people demonstrate their support for Gaza in Malaga: 'We cannot look the other way'

Thousands of Malaga residents showed their support for Palestine with a demonstration that took place in the city on 29 August. Despite the police and the organisers of the event estimating different numbers of attendees - 3,500 and 7,500, respectively - the number of demonstrators exceeded the expectations of both parties, who were prepared for around 550 people. The event was organised by Voces Palestinas, Málaga por Palestina and Platafoma Axarquía por Palestina.

Although they had not prepared for the wave of solidarity, the security forces were able to gather enough personnel to control a march of just over a thousand people, which was still below what was necessary. Fortunately, as a member of the Málaga por Palestina organisation said, there were no problems during the march. "If we had known that so many people were going to come, we would have mobilised more people for the order service and we would have brought more loudspeakers," they said. Spokesperson for Voces Palestinas Hatem Abdul said that it was the biggest demonstration for the Palestinian cause ever held in Malaga.

The march set off after 8pm on Friday evening from a packed Plaza de la Marina, with banners, speeches and chants. Just then, as the head of the crowd looked out over the harbour, 35-year-old Adham - a Palestinian from the West Bank - showed his mobile phone: "Look, Malaga is live on Al-Jazeera." At 10pm, when the walk finished at Plaza de la Constitución, the crowd was still substantial in size.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will win," "It's not a war, it's a genocide," "Gaza, resist, Palestine exists" or "Where are the sanctions on Israel, you can't see them," were the chants repeated by people of all ages and walks of life.

The rally in solidarity with Gaza on 5 August at the Plaza de la Merced was the largest ever held in the capital of Malaga province. From then until this demonstration on 29 August, several things have happened. For example, the United Nations (UN) officially declared the famine situation in Gaza, giving a name to the terrible images of skeletal children's bodies that have flooded the news, the pages of newspapers and social media. Moreover, 14 of the 15 members of the security council (with the exception of the US) agree that this famine is not the result of a natural disaster and is caused by human action, pointing to Israel's responsibility. Therefore, it could be quickly reversed. The multilateral body estimates that food shortages will severely affect 640,000 people by the end of September - a number that could grow. Despite this, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu maintains his siege and accelerates the invasion of Gaza City, even with the families of the Hamas hostages against it.

In recent weeks, the list of murdered journalists has also been growing, as they have become the target of massacres. Half a dozen died in the hospital attack a few days ago. As many were killed more than a fortnight ago. More than 200 journalists have become victims since the beginning of what many refuse to call a war. This situation has been denounced by Reporters Without Borders. An investigation by The Guardian and the Israeli magazine +972, which uses information from the Hebrew army itself, has concluded that at least 83% of the dead in Gaza are civilians - one of the highest proportions of recent conflicts, surpassed only by the 1994 Rwandan War, the Mariupol disaster (Ukraine) in 2022 and Srebrenica during the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s.

These are all motives that have been permeating the conscience and which brought Paqui and Ana from Campillos, which is an hour away from Malaga. "The movement is growing, because people have already seen it on television," they said. Their friend Juan Espejo added: "This is not political, it's not ideological, it's because you can't kill children." From Rincón de la Victoria came Carmen Recondo: "I show my solidarity with the Palestinian people. The only thing I can do is come here and make donations." Later, in one of the participants' speeches, someone said: "We cannot look the other way, you cannot starve people, you cannot normalise it."

Hatem Abdul stated that the demands of this latest march are the same as those of all the other marches: "An end to genocide, an end to the arms trade with the State of Israel, the application of sanctions and an end to impunity." Tania Romero of Málaga por Palestina fears that "the last phase of genocide has begun with double bombings" (such as the latest attack on a hospital). "We are in the most sadistic phase," she pointed out, adding that there is part of the Israeli and Jewish society that is against genocide: "We have said that the State of Israel is not the people of Israel. There is an anti-Zionist Jewish community. It is absurd to talk about antisemitism.

Maria Plata, who participates in the Global Sumud Flotilla - an international platform that is going to charter dozens of boats to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the Strip - was also at the march. "We cannot look the other way," she said, although she was very careful not to give too many details of the expedition for fear of it getting attacked. She did insist that SUR writes that donations can be made through the website to help charter and fill the aid boats.

Spokesperson for Con Málaga Nico Sguiglia said: "We are here to denounce the ignominy and indignity of the bad rulers who are between complicity and passivity in the face of genocide. We are here to demand that the government once and for all break off relations with Israel and for the international community to enforce an international law that has taken decades to build. When Russia invaded Ukraine, measures and sanctions were taken, but not now. Civil society is showing more dignity than governments."

This demonstration precedes another major action being prepared in the city in solidarity with Palestine: next Saturday, 6 September. The rally will start at 7pm in the Plaza de la Constitución. Malaga groups will join the call of the Global Alliance for Palestine and participate in the Global Day for Gaza. "It will be an act in homage to the groups most affected by this genocide: women, children, health workers, humanitarian workers and journalists, among others," sources from the organisation told SUR.