h/t Lowkey

23 May 2026
https://ahmedeldin.substack.com/p/spanish-police-beat-global-sumud

Lede: The brutal Bilbao beating exposes €1.6M Israeli training program for
Basque police.

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.

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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.
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Basque police, the 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.

The 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.

Cont'd