Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said Barcelona star Lamine Yamal had made Spain “proud” for waving a Palestinian flag at a victory parade that sparked superfluous Israeli accusations of “inciting hatred”.
The 18-year-old forward drew attention for brandishing Palestine’s flag during an open-top bus parade through Barcelona on Monday as his team celebrated their second straight La Liga title.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz lashed out at the Spain star on Thursday, saying he chose to “incite hatred” against his country.
“I hope a great and respected club like Barcelona distances itself from these remarks and makes it unambiguously clear that there is no place for incitement or support for terrorism,” Katz said on X in Spanish.
Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel who has declared Israeli actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, hit back in defence of Yamal.
“Those who think that waving the flag of a state is ‘inciting hatred’, they have either lost their minds or they have been blinded by their own disgrace,” he wrote on X.
“Lamine just expressed the solidarity with Palestine that millions of Spaniards feel. Yet another reason to be proud of him,” Sanchez added.
