Thousands Of People In Spain Formed A Huge Human-Shaped Palestine At The Running Of The Bulls Festival

Spain’s annual running of the bulls festival opened on Sunday, July 6, with an unprecedented show of solidarity with Palestine, with thousands of people forming a human-shaped Palestine and chanting “Palestine is not alone.”

Activists wore traditional festival attire with Palestinian keffiyehs and waved Palestine flags, disrupting the usual festival protocol to raise awareness about Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

On Sunday, the traditional chupinazo rocket launch, which marks the start of the San Fermín Festival in Pamplona, was led by representatives of Yala Nafarroa, a platform uniting 225 collectives and more than 1,700 people from Navarre advocating against genocide and occupation and for a free Palestine. 

As the rocket was launched from the balcony of Pamplona’s City Hall, the crowd chanted “Free Palestine” and “Long live free Palestine,” with many waving Palestine flags and displaying banners calling to “Stop genocide.”

In addition to the human map at San Fermín, in Guernica, another Spanish city, more than 3,000 people formed a human mosaic depicting Palestine’s flag and the suffering caused by Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The demonstration drew a parallel to the historical bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and called for international intervention to stop the massacres.

Spain’s government has a long-standing stance in supporting Palestine.

It officially recognized Palestine as a sovereign state based on the pre-1967 borders, along with Ireland and Norway, in May 2024.

Spain's prime minister Pedro Sánchez has also called Israel "a genocidal state" and said it should be banned from competing in Eurovision the same way Russia was banned over its invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Israel is intensifying its attacks across Gaza, killing more than 57,523 Palestinians, including 758 people while trying to reach aid through the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

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