Madrid leads Europe-wide protests against the Gaza conflict

CGTN Europe

Protests against the #Gaza conflict are taking place around #Europe.  CGTN’s Ken Browne reports from #Madrid where thousands of people join the #protest. #Palestine #Israel

Transcript

00:00 Protests against the conflict in Gaza continue to escalate across Europe.

00:04 More student demonstrations have taken place in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain,

00:09 with some leading to clashes and arrests.

00:12 Our correspondent Ken Brown reports from Madrid.

00:15 Three to four thousand people on the streets of Madrid as pro-Palestinian groups have come together

00:21 to protest against the Israeli offensive.

00:24 Camps have popped up at the universities around Spain like this one at the Complutense University of Madrid,

00:30 amplifying and inspiring similar protests in Valencia, Barcelona, Alicante and beyond.

00:37 Students call for an end to the conflict and for Spain to stop buying and selling arms to Israel.

00:43 Some two thousand academics have openly supported their students,

00:46 and the police response has been muted so far in Madrid.

00:50 We're all in solidarity with each other, even though we have different situations in each of our protests.

00:57 But basically we're all having the same demands,

01:01 and all of us are protesting because of the same thing,

01:06 which is basically the rights of the Palestinian people.

01:10 Palestinian cause is very important and we have to defend the right of the Palestinian people to exist.

01:17 Elsewhere things have not been so calm.

01:20 At the University of Amsterdam the police stormed a camp at 4am,

01:23 arresting around 125 activists, also using heavy machinery to break off one camp.

01:30 The protests calm as Israel signals a major expansion of its military operations

01:37 into the city of Rafa in southern Gaza.

01:40 Over 35,000 Palestinian people are reported to have lost their lives in this Israeli offensive,

01:46 which has caused a humanitarian crisis.

01:49 The World Food Programme says that 1.1 million people in Gaza are suffering catastrophic levels of hunger.

01:57 Politically, Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is advocating for European countries to recognise a Palestinian state.

02:04 Countries like Ireland, Denmark and Slovenia are already on board, along with a handful of others.

02:11 They are discussing May 21st as a potential date for that declaration,

02:16 but for the people here on the streets of Madrid and in the campuses around the country, more needs to be done.

02:22 Ken Brown, CTTN, Madrid.

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