Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao said it stands with Palestine and made urgent calls for a halt to the genocide in Gaza, in the latest show of solidarity with the Palestinian cause in sport.
The club, based in Spain’s Basque Country, announced that it would hold a special pre-game ceremony on Saturday in solidarity with the Palestinian people before its match against RCD Mallorca, as part of the Spanish La Liga's fixtures this weekend.
In a statement published on its official website, Athletic Bilbao said the special ceremony will feature a group of 11 Palestinian refugees residing in the region, the club’s 125th anniversary ambassador, former Palestinian football captain Honey Thaljieh, and representatives from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The group will walk onto Athletic Bilbao’s home pitch, the San Mames stadium, where the club’s fans will give them a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, the club confirmed that the stadium’s video scoreboards will display a message in the Basque language, which will read: "Athletic stands with Palestine. Stop the genocide."
Thaljieh is a pioneering figure in the sport, having become the first-ever captain of the Palestinian women’s football team in the early 2000s. Post-retirement, the Bethlehem native has dedicated herself to sports initiatives for boys and girls in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. She also serves as a member of the Supreme Council of Youth and Sport and as manager of Corporate Communications for FIFA, which provides support to over 400 projects in 79 countries.
The pre-match ceremony is part of an ongoing project between Athletic Bilbao’s foundation and UNRWA Euskadi, the UN agency’s branch in the Basque Autonomous Country. The two organisations began supporting around 8,000 vulnerable Palestinian refugees in Syria this month, pledging to provide them with physical education classes in 16 UNRWA-managed schools.
The club presented the project on Friday to the media, where they also screened a documentary featuring Thaljieh, who also participated in discussions as part of the Thinking Football Film Festival.
The Basque region has seen a number of demonstrations of pro-Palestinian solidarity following the outbreak of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has now killed over 66,000 Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Athletic Bilbao fans rallied in the city's streets ahead of the UEFA Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and waving Palestinian flags.
Earlier last month, pro-Palestinian activists stormed the Vuelta a España cycling race’s finish line in Bilbao over the Israeli team’s participation.
Meanwhile, in July, Basque unions ELA, LAB and ESK, alongside the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, successfully pressured Spanish steelmaker Sidenor into halting exports to Israel.
Spain as a whole has been among the Western nations more critical of Israel, labelling its actions in Gaza a genocide and introducing a series of measures aimed at isolating Israel internationally, including the imposition of an arms embargo.
Spain has also joined calls urging Israel to be banned from competing in international sporting tournaments, especially football.