Members of the BDS movement attempted to attack a joint delegation of prominent Arab and Jewish residents of the West Bank last week in Madrid.
The delegation was in Spain on Dec. 10 to meet members of Spanish parliament and discuss reversing the European Union decision to label products from Israeli settlements, reported Ynet.
The group included Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council; Sheikh Taissir Dayut Tamimi from Ramallah, who served as the Palestinian Authority’s chief Islamic judge; self-declared “proud Arab, Muslim, Zionist Israeli” Sarah Zoabi; and Arab-Israeli Likud member Dima Tayeh.
The delegation participated in a panel discussion at the Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid, where they explained why marking settlement products negatively affected Arabs and Jews. Shortly after the panel started, BDS members began waving PLO flags, hurled insults at the group, and tried to physically attack both Arab and Jewish members of the delegation. Security personnel were forced to tackle the rioters.
Security removed the rioters from the hotel, though they waited for the delegation outside and upon the group’s exit, continued to insult them and, according to Israel’s Channel 12, again attempted to assault some of the members. The protesters reportedly called the Arab delegates traitors to their nation.
Madrid’s special forces helped the delegation leave the venue, and the group was issued a police security escort for the rest of their stay in Spain, according to i24News.
Dagan refused a request to leave the hotel through the back door, saying, “We came through the front door, and we’ll leave through the front door. We are all from Israel, and we will never fear anti-Semites.”