Trump, listening, Gaza is Palestine. This Saturday, hundreds of individuals took to the streets in the historic centre of La Laguna, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian community and protesting against what they termed “Israeli genocide” and the “colonial” actions of the new US president, Donald Trump.
The Tenerife groups advocating for the Palestinian cause displayed banners proclaiming messages such as “Long live the Palestinian resistance”, “It is not a war, it is a genocide”, “Let’s end the genocide in Palestine”, and “Break ties with Israel now”.
Participants also voiced strong chants including “Gaza girls are not a threat”, “It was a hospital, not a military centre”, “They cannot be seen, sanction Israel” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will prevail.”
Ankor García, a representative from the platform Tenerife by Palestine and the student assembly GAR, grabbed the megaphone to discuss the “ethnic eradication plan” as he denounced Trump’s intention to displace Palestinians from Gaza and replace it with a large tourist hub. “It is a plan for the colonisation and exploitation of Palestinian land that resembles a smokescreen. However, they will endeavour to implement it because they are fascists, and Trump is merely another fascist,” he asserted.
According to Ankor García, Trump’s declarations and the Israeli government “render the genuine solution unattainable, which is the Establishment of a Palestinian State“. He elaborated, “What they are currently proposing is the expulsion of all Palestinians. Israel, backed by Trump, is executing the final act of this genocide which entails the expulsion of an entire population and the seizure of all their lands. That is their intention.”
Under the slogan Palestine is not for sale, these mobilisations, which also occurred this Saturday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, saw over fifty organisations, groups, unions, and political parties join in to demand that European governments “stop turning a blind eye and actively support justice and Palestinian resistance.” They condemned the “ethnic cleansing” in the region, the killings in the West Bank, and called for international action to halt the “genocide” alongside a boycott against Israel.
The gatherers in La Laguna began their march at 11 am this Saturday from Plaza del Cristo, concluding at Plaza de la Concepción in the historic centre of the city, where a manifesto was read out, calling for sanctions and the cessation of relations with the Israeli government led by Benjamín Netanyahu.