Anti-Israel protests turn Spanish Vuelta cycling race into a diplomatic battleground : NPR
People have Palestinian flags as they try to disrupt the eleventh stage of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, from Bilbao to Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday, September 3, 2025.
Miguel OSS / AP
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Miguel OSS / AP
Barcelona, Spain – As a lap in the northwest of Spain, Rosana Prieto takes care of the race of her small village and is far from the big cities, often shaken by demonstrations against geopolitical problems. But with one of the largest cycling races in the world that cross the nearby bucolic hills, she and hundreds of city dwellers with similar views have felt a chance to make their little voices heard, denouncing the military campaign of Israel in Gaza.
The Palestinian flags in hand, they stood precisely where they knew that the television cameras would broadcast their message to the world: the last turn before the finish line of the 15th stage, as cyclists of the Spanish swirling past Vuelta. Higher on the road, a protester wearing a Palestinian flag approached too close to the speeding and caused a pair of cyclists.
Demonstrations targeting a team belonging to Israel have repeatedly seized the Projectors on Vuelta, the Spanish version of the Tour de France, in which more than 180 cyclists pedal 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) through the sleeping roads of rural Spain. Five of the last 10 days of racing have been interrupted or interrupted, with more than 20 people detained by the police.
The 23 -month military grain of Israel on Palestinian territory, launched in response to the deadly attack in Hamas, on October 7, 2023, had already rapped many Spaniards, including his Frankish government. The protests on the touch of the Vuelta have earned the Tacitus of the Government approval and catalyzed the boost to express one of the strongest positions against Israel of any European nation since the start of the sustained military operation.
“The demonstrations were born from the idea that our only chance of defending human rights concerning Israel is Spanish Vuelta,” Perieto, 48, told the Associated Press by phone. “It is an international projector for us to say that we are against what Israel does.”
Israel defended its military actions in Gaza and accused Spain of standing with Hamas.
The war has so far killed more than 64,700 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health in the territory, while Famine seizes its largest city.
Pressures from Spain for the exclusion of the Israeli team
The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined Ireland and Norway to recognize a Palestinian state last year, and Spain became the first European country to ask a UN court to join the South African affair accusing Israel of genocide.
Vuelta demonstrators argue that if the Russian teams have been prohibited from international sporting events for the war in Ukraine, Israeli teams should also be punished.
The Spanish government agrees.
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said he would support the Israeli team’s expulsion, while government spokesperson Pilar Alegría, who is also Minister of Sports and Education, said neutrality was no longer possible in the face of death and destruction in Gaza.
“What we see during the demonstrations, in my opinion, is logical,” Alegría told Cadena Ser Radio on September 11. “Sport cannot be isolated from the world around them.”
The demonstrators push the race at the limit
For Vuelta’s safety details, it was logistically impossible to lock the whole road through its twisted roads, a large part of which is bordered by the forest. Large groups gathered in cities and demonstrators jumped off to block the cyclists’ path, which crashed two athletes, although it was not clear if it was the intention of the demonstrators. None of the runners who crashed was in the Israeli team. The cyclists participating in the race voted on Wednesday that they would resign if their security was again in danger.
The team under fire, Israel Premier Tech – who has only one Israeli rider at the Vuelta – published a statement saying that leaving the race is out of the question, as this “would establish a dangerous precedent”.
But Israel Premier Tech tried to keep a low profile. The riders avoided speaking to the media and he took the step back of the name of his team of his driving uniforms.
The team belongs to the Israeli-Canadian businessman Sylvan Adams, who emigrated to Israel in 2016, and played a key role in promoting Israel via sport. He helped organize accommodation by Israel from the start of Giro d’Italia, the third race of the Grand Tour de Cycling, in 2018.
“Excellent work to the cycling team of Sylvan and Israel for not having given in to hatred and intimidation,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the social media platform on September 5. “You make Israel proud!”
People have Palestinian flags during the eleventh stage of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, from Bilbao to Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday September 3, 2025.
Miguel OSS / AP
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Miguel OSS / AP
‘A little frightened’
There have been occasional confrontations between the police, the security staff and the demonstrators. Prieto said she needed medical treatment for abrasions and blows after a policeman dragged her through the ground. She said that she and her cohorts behaved peacefully and waited to see if she faces accusations.
Cycling teams have denounced certain demonstration actions. Jxean Fernández Matxin, the boss of the Emirates Emirates Emirates team, said that some of them hit the runners with flag posts and threw out on their way.
“Everyone has the right to protest, but it is a shame that it can happen here and in this way and that we cannot finish the race,” said race leader Jonas Vingegaard, twice winner of the Tour de France, after the end of Wednesday.
The champion by reigning Tadej Pogačar jumped his Vuelta. However, the largest cycling star feared that the demonstrations will spread to other races.
“I think all the runners are a little afraid of what could happen,” Pogačar for journalists in Quebec said on Thursday. “When we see what’s going on in the Vuelta, we talk about it and we think it could happen here or in other races by the end of the season.”
The next day, a few dozen demonstrators gathered in the Canadian city of Quebec during a one -day race in which Pogačar participated.
Diplomatic births intensifies
While the demonstrations disrupted the Vuelta, a fleet of militants of activists responsible for humanitarian aid made Barcelona sail, aimed at breaking the Israeli naval blocking of the Gaza Strip.
The Spanish Prime Minister has chosen this week to denounce Israel’s operations in Gaza as a “genocide” and do a national television address announcing an arms embargo and blocking fuel deliveries linked to Israel via Spanish ports.
This decision ignited a diplomatic dispute which led to the ban on ministers from the two countries. Israeli leaders qualified the actions of the Spanish government “anti -Semitic” and a “flagrant genocidal threat”.
If the demonstrations gain in force, they could become a concern for Israel, which has long spread its close relations with the European Union. The president of the European Commission this week called this week to suspend commercial ties with Israel, and the Netherlands said that he would boycott the popular Eurovision song competition next year if Israel is authorized to participate.
For analyst Oriol Bartomeus, professor of political science at the autonomous university of Barcelona, the long campaign of Sánchez against the Incursion of Israel in Gaza benefits both and feeds the protest movement from the base to the race for cycling.
“What is happening at the Vuelta is a symptom of the anger of the left on this issue,” said Bartomeus in the AP. “This is about to be a major point of cohesion of Spanish society. Sánchez is not stupid, and he did it.”
The demonstrators aim to act again on Sunday, when the race ends in Madrid. The authorities will deploy 1,500 police officers for the last stage, adding to the 130 officers who are already traveling with the race.
