[News] Basque Police Beat Global Sumud Flotilla Torture Survivors In Spain

[Anti-Imperialist News]

ahmedeldin.substack.com
<https://ahmedeldin.substack.com/p/spanish-police-beat-global-sumud>
Basque Police Beat Global Sumud Flotilla Torture Survivors In Spain
Ahmed Eldin
May 23, 2026
------------------------------

The video from Bilbao Airport today is as brutal as it is bewildering. Six
Basque activists walk through arrivals, fresh from being intercepted,
detained, and abused by Israeli forces while attempting to deliver
humanitarian aid to Gaza, carrying physical and psychological scars from
their encounter with the Israeli military.

*Basque police beating Israeli torture survivors is institutional. **These
are the same cops who've taken €1.6M in Israeli security contracts,trained
by former Mossad agents, and equipped with Israeli surveillance tech. *

Basque police, the Ertzaintza
<https://www.preventionweb.net/organization/ertzaintza>, descended on Loiu
Airport with batons drawn. They attacked the activists and the friends and
family who had gathered to welcome them home. Four people were arrested,
charged with “desobediencia grave, resistencia y atentado a agente de la
autoridad” — the standard playbook for criminalizing solidarity.

The images are shocking: police beating people who had just survived
Israeli captivity. People being dragged and handcuffed as they step off a
plane, bringing back evidence of Israeli war crimes.
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The Ertzaintza <https://www.preventionweb.net/organization/ertzaintza>
presents itself as a different kind of police force. Created in 1982 as
part of Basque autonomy, it’s supposed to be more responsive to local
communities, and less like the centralized Spanish national police.

The truth is, the Ertzaintza has a long-standing, multifaceted relationship
with Israel that goes far beyond the Spanish government’s official
positions on Palestine.

Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about:

*Technology & Equipment:* The Ertzaintza has purchased Israeli technology
and equipment for years. <https://shield.ertzaintza.eus/en> Its
phone-tapping system comes from Verint Systems, an Israeli company with deep
ties to Israeli military intelligence.
<https://www.elsaltodiario.com/armamento-policial/gobierno-vasco-ertzaintza-bilbao-contratan-exagente-israeli-mossad>
An Israeli firm, ICTS <https://www.impulse-h2020.eu/consortium/ertz/>, has
managed security at some of their facilities. They’ve used Israeli body
armor,
<https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/lang/en/espana/stpv/spaintoday2015/security/paginas/index.aspx>surveillance
cameras, and listening devices.

*Training & Services: *The Ertzaintza has participated in training from
Israeli sources
<https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/euskadi-israel-a-relationship-of-military-training-etas-empathy-for-zionism-and-politics/>,
including courses from Guardian Defense & Homeland Security — a company run
by a former Mossad agent
<https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/euskadi-israel-a-relationship-of-military-training-etas-empathy-for-zionism-and-politics/>
that has provided “live fire” training to Spanish police.

*Financial Ties:* These aren’t minor transactions. Basque institutions have
reportedly spent over €1.66 million on contracts with Israeli-linked
security companies.
<https://www.elsaltodiario.com/armamento-policial/gobierno-vasco-ertzaintza-bilbao-contratan-exagente-israeli-mossad>
In 2021 the Ertzaintza signed a contract for €3,569.50
<https://www.elsaltodiario.com/armamento-policial/gobierno-vasco-ertzaintza-bilbao-contratan-exagente-israeli-mossad>
just for “supply of stun and distraction grenade carriers” from these same
Israeli sources.

This is the institutional reality that contradicts the political rhetoric.

For years, Israel has aggressively cultivated relationships with European
police forces through security training programs. Companies like Israeli
Tactical School, International Protection Services, and ISA Security
Academy <https://www.israeli-tactical.de/>market themselves as premier
counter-terrorism experts. Their instructors come from Shin Bet, the
Israeli secret service. Their doctrine emphasizes aggressive tactics, crowd
suppression, and treating dissent as security threat.

The Israeli Tactical School <https://www.israeli-tactical.de/> openly
boasts of training “security professionals worldwide” in “counter-terrorism
and executive protection.” Their curriculum includes “close-quarters
battle” and “counter-surveillance” — tactics designed for high-risk
environments that aren’t exactly what you’d expect at an airport arrivals
gate.

When Israeli forces sexually assault, torture, and brutalize international
activists bringing aid to Gaza, those actions send a clear message to every
police force they’ve trained: “This is how you handle people who challenge
us. And you should be doing the same.”

While Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has positioned himself as a
critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, calling for investigations and even
suspending
the EU-Israel association agreement
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRYgTwg-jEs>, the institutional reality on
the ground tells a different story.

The Spanish government may condemn Israeli atrocities in public statements,
but its security apparatus maintains deep ties with Israeli military and
security contractors.

This explains why the Ertzaintza behaved the way they did in Bilbao.
They’re part of a security ecosystem that views Palestinian solidarity
activists through the same lens as Israeli security forces.

It’s the same logic that allows far-right agitator Dani Esteve to publicly
call for bombing the flotilla
<https://www.eldiario.es/espana/dani-esteve-bombardear-flotilla-palestina_1_102123456.html>
and lead demonstrations in Madrid with complete impunity. When the system
views Palestinian solidarity as a threat to national security — a lesson
learned from Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine — it will act accordingly.

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Timing matters. The Global Sumud Flotilla arrived as global pressure on
Israel reaches unprecedented levels. South Korea has condemned Israeli
actions. <https://www.mofa.go.kr/> The Netherlands has banned settlement
products. <https://www.government.nl/> Even in the US, the pro-Israel lobby
is losing ground with more Americans sympathizing with Palestinians rather
than Israelis for the first time.

Israel and their proxies know they’re losing the battle for global
legitimacy. So they’re doubling down on repression — not just in occupied
territories, but in European cities too.

The Ertzaintza’s attack was an attack on the credibility of Spain’s entire
Palestine position. It exposed the hypocrisy of a government that talks
solidarity while practicing complicity.

This is the contradiction at the heart of European “solidarity” with
Palestine. You can condemn Israeli genocide in Brussels while your police
enforce the same logic of repression domestically. You can call for
accountability while your institutions actively suppress the movement
demanding that accountability.

The contrast between Barcelona and Bilbao tells the story. In Barcelona,
the activists were welcomed by Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amW_u7mVHac>, who called for
investigations into Israeli “tortures” and denounced the interception as
“piracy.” In Bilbao, they were met with batons and arrests.

This is about the fundamental contradiction between Spain’s supposed
solidarity with Palestine and its institutional entanglement with Israel’s
security apparatus.

The activists who sailed for Gaza weren’t just bringing humanitarian aid —
they were bringing back evidence of Israeli war crimes. And in that
evidence lies a challenge to the very system that profits from Israeli
technology and training.

When the police attacked them in Bilbao, they were attacking the activists
and attacking the evidence. They were actually attacking the truth,
protecting the institutional ties that bind them to the same security logic
that abuses Palestinians.

The Spanish government can condemn Israeli atrocities all it wants. But
until it cuts the institutional ties that train police in Israeli security
doctrine, until it stops purchasing Israeli surveillance technology, until
it ends the contracts with Israeli security firms — its words will remain
empty.

The activists who survived Israeli captivity only to be attacked by Spanish
police understand this reality better than anyone. They’ve seen firsthand
how the same logic of control and violence connects Tel Aviv to Bilbao.

The real question is why any police force would choose alignment with an
occupying power over protecting their own citizens.

When Ertzaintza beat people welcoming home activists who survived Israeli
detention, they were protecting the system that allows Israeli forces to
commit torture with impunity. They were protecting the illusion that Spain
can be a genuine ally to Palestine while its institutions do Israel’s dirty
work at home.

Another world is possible. But it won’t be built by police forces that beat
activists for supporting freedom. It won’t be built by governments that
condemn Israeli genocide while enabling it at home.

The Basque activists understood this. That’s why they sailed to Gaza. And
that’s why Ertzaintza was so damn afraid of them coming home.

Meanwhile, Israel is busy gaslighting the world:
[image: X avatar for @IsraelMFA]

Israel Foreign Ministry at IsraelMFA

We demand an explanation from the Spanish government regarding its
treatment of the flotilla anarchists

8:33 AM · May 23, 2026 · 108K Views

215 Replies · 707 Reposts · 3.02K Likes
<https://x.com/israelmfa/status/2058209600940212412?s=46>
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