By: Fern Sidman

What began as a demonstration against Israel’s military actions in Gaza spiraled into chaos on Wednesday night in Barcelona, Spain as anti-Israel protesters vandalized businesses, clashed with police, and threatened Israeli athletes in a series of violent confrontations that swept across Spain. According to a report that appeared on Thursday at VIN News, at least 15 people were arrested in Barcelona following hours of unrest that left parts of the city center scorched, storefronts destroyed, and police overwhelmed by waves of rioters waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

The disturbances were part of a coordinated wave of protests across more than 40 Spanish cities, timed to coincide with the presence of Israeli basketball teams playing in the country. What unfolded in Barcelona was not a peaceful political demonstration, but a night of lawlessness — marked by anti-Semitic chants, physical aggression, and acts of vandalism against global businesses accused of “collaboration” with Israel.

According to La Vanguardia and corroborated by VIN News, rioters specifically targeted international chains such as Burger King, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, claiming these corporations “profit from genocide.” Storefronts were smashed and windows shattered as mobs moved through the central Eixample district toward the Israeli Consulate. Fires were set to overflowing garbage bins, and police barricades were overturned in the ensuing melee.

Videos circulating on social media — reviewed by VIN News — showed demonstrators draped in keffiyehs and Palestinian flags chanting “From the river to the sea” as they hurled objects at riot police. Officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force, responded with batons and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse the increasingly volatile crowd.

By midnight, Barcelona’s main thoroughfare, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, was completely blocked by burning debris and upturned trash bins, while smoke plumes drifted through the city center. Riot units struggled to contain the violence as the protesters splintered into smaller groups and continued attacking commercial properties believed to have “ties to Israel.”

A senior police source told VIN News that “many of these groups were not local activists but organized agitators who came prepared for confrontation,” noting that “Molotov cocktails, flares, and metal rods” were seized during arrests.

The protests took a particularly menacing turn when demonstrators attempted to reach the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team, which was staying at a Barcelona hotel ahead of a scheduled game. According to the information provided in the VIN News report, police were forced to relocate the entire team and staff under heavy security after intelligence indicated that anti-Israel activists were planning to confront them outside their lodgings.

The team’s match later that evening was held without spectators following security advisories from both local authorities and the Israeli consulate. Despite the measures, players described a harrowing experience that underscored the growing reach of anti-Israel hostility in Europe.

One player told VIN News anonymously that “we could hear the chanting from outside the hotel — they were calling us murderers. We didn’t leave our rooms until the police came to move us.”

In a separate incident in Valencia, the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team was subjected to similar threats before a game against Valencia Basket. According to Spanish media and VIN News, five protesters were arrested after violent clashes erupted near the arena as police sought to shield Israeli players from direct assault. That match, too, was played behind closed doors.

“These were not demonstrations for peace — they were acts of intimidation,” one Israeli diplomat told VIN News, describing the atmosphere as “eerily reminiscent of the 1970s when Jewish athletes in Europe were targeted simply for representing Israel.”

Spain has witnessed a surge in anti-Israel activism since the onset of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. But, as the VIN News report noted, what distinguishes these latest protests is their explicitly violent and coordinated nature, driven by radical networks that appear increasingly emboldened by government silence.

In cities such as Madrid, Seville, and Bilbao, similar demonstrations took place on Wednesday — ostensibly in protest of what organizers called “genocide in Gaza.” Yet slogans captured on video and reviewed by VIN News included not only anti-Israel rhetoric but also explicit antisemitic chants such as “Kill the Jews” and “There is only one solution.”

Spain’s government has come under growing criticism from both domestic Jewish organizations and international observers for a failure to curb antisemitic incitement. While officials condemned the violence in general terms, they stopped short of acknowledging the explicitly anti-Jewish nature of the demonstrations.

“The Jewish community in Spain is terrified,” said a Madrid-based communal leader who spoke to VIN News on condition of anonymity. “Our synagogues are increasing security, parents are afraid to send their children to Jewish schools, and now Israeli athletes are being hunted down in the streets. This is not political activism — it’s hate.”

Observers told VIN News that the Barcelona riots mirrored pro-Hamas rhetoric increasingly visible across Western Europe since the Gaza war began. Many demonstrators carried signs glorifying Hamas’s “resistance” and waved the flags of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militias.

Spanish police said that among those arrested in Barcelona were several individuals affiliated with radical anarchist and pro-Palestinian groups known for prior acts of violence. Intelligence sources quoted in the VIN News report suggested coordination between local activists and international networks that operate under the guise of “human rights solidarity” but in practice serve as fronts for extremist propaganda.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a sharp rebuke Thursday morning, demanding that Spanish authorities “take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens and athletes.” An Israeli spokesperson told VIN News that the events in Barcelona and Valencia represent “a shocking failure to uphold basic public order and protect visitors from state-backed incitement.”

The unrest in Spain reflects a broader trend across Europe, where anti-Israel demonstrations have increasingly devolved into violence since October 2023. According to VIN News, European law enforcement agencies have documented a rise in hate crimes targeting Jewish institutions, Israeli embassies, and businesses perceived as pro-Israel.

In France, Jewish-owned stores in Paris were vandalized with Stars of David last month. In Germany, synagogues have required round-the-clock police protection. And in the United Kingdom, a parliamentary inquiry has been launched after pro-Hamas marches in London led to assaults on Jewish pedestrians.

Spain’s situation is particularly volatile, analysts told VIN News, because of its permissive legal environment and the growing political influence of far-left parties sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. “Spain has become a European epicenter of anti-Israel agitation,” said one security expert. “When political leaders blur the line between legitimate criticism and incitement, it creates the conditions for mob violence.”

For Israeli officials and Jewish communities alike, the events in Barcelona served as a grim warning. What was once confined to online vitriol and political grandstanding has now spilled into the streets — endangering lives and eroding Europe’s moral clarity.

As VIN News reported, the symbolism of Israeli athletes being forced to play in empty arenas — shielded by riot police from violent mobs — is not lost on Israelis who recall the Munich Olympics tragedy of 1972. Then, as now, Jewish athletes became targets of political hate masquerading as protest.

In a statement Thursday, the Israeli Basketball Association thanked Spanish authorities for their protection but expressed “deep concern that antisemitic hatred continues to endanger our teams abroad.”

Meanwhile, Barcelona city officials have promised a full investigation into the violence. Yet for many, such pledges ring hollow. The images of burning streets, shattered windows, and frightened athletes under police escort have already etched themselves into Europe’s conscience.

As the VIN News report observed, “Barcelona’s night of rage was not about Gaza — it was about hate. It revealed, once again, how easily antisemitic fury can disguise itself in the language of activism, and how quickly that hatred ignites when moral leadership goes missing.”

Spain’s descent into this chaos may be a warning not only for Madrid but for all of Europe:  that silence in the face of rising antisemitism is no longer neutrality — it is complicity.