Pro-Palestinian group sparks outrage at bull run

Activists led the San Fermin Festival opening, chanting anti-Israel slogans and displaying a banner calling to “destroy Israel.”

By David Brummer, World Israel News

The annual San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain, opened Sunday with a wave of controversy after pro-Palestinian activists were invited to launch the iconic event.

Members of the group Yala Nafarroa con Palestina led the opening ceremony, shouting “Free Palestine” and unveiling a large banner that read “destroy Israel,” the Jewish Chronicle (JC) reported.

Wearing keffiyehs and standing on the town hall balcony, activist Lidón Soriano declared, “There’s a genocide,” before screaming, “Long live Free Palestine.”

She and fellow activist Eduardo Ibero then lit the ceremonial firework that officially begins the festival.

The crowd of thousands below cheered and waved red bandannas, some of which showed a map of Israel labeled “Palestine.”

According to Spanish outlet El Pais, this year’s opening was selected through a popular vote that saw record participation. Over 10,000 residents cast ballots, with Yala Nafarroa receiving 52.8% of the vote.

While municipal rules require participants to stick to a neutral script, organizers did not intervene when the group added political slogans.

Similar deviations have occurred in previous years.

A symbolic display in the main plaza featured people dressed in black standing in the shape of Israel’s borders, which was later covered with the “destroy Israel” banner.

The Israeli embassy in Madrid strongly condemned the event, calling it “an obsession with the Jewish state.”

The embassy said it was “intolerable” for Spanish institutions to support groups that promote hate and undermine peace.

The European Jewish Association also criticized the ceremony, calling it a dangerous spread of anti-Israel hatred at a cultural event, according to the JC.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chair of the European Jewish Association, said the use of anti-Israel slogans echoed the ancient “genocide blood libel” that is now resurfacing at public gatherings across Europe.

“For 3,000 years, Jews longed for independence. We won it. That radical independence movements hate us for it speaks volumes,” he said.

Pamplona’s mayor, Joseba Asiron, defended the group’s participation.

He praised the activists for delivering what he described as a message of “solidarity, rationality and humanity” at the festival’s most important moment, according to Spain’s EFE news agency.

Meanwhile, Spanish journalist Javier Negre posted on X: “How it pains me to see that Pamplona is governed by defenders of ETA and Hamas terrorism. I feel like throwing up.”