Thanks a lot to the organizers because these spaces are absolutely necessary to build networks between organizations and between ordinary people like us, ordinary but at the same time, extraordinary.
My name is Lidón Soriano and today I stand before you with a clear message from the RESCOP, the biggest network in solidarity with Palestine in the spanish state and from Yala Nafarroa with Palestine, my organization from Navarra in the Basque country: the urgent need to isolate Israel.
Spain and the Basque has become widely known for its support for Palestine. And for that, pedagogy, explaining people what the zionist colonial project is, is absolutely necessary, because when people understand what is going on in Palestine, they do not need persuading—they act.
All this support for Palestine has been possible because of decades of taking the streets, ending agreements with Israeli universities, launching legal cases against complicit companies, implementing BDS, doing Institutional work, for instance: In Catalonia and in Navarra, our Parliaments have adopted a motion recognising Zionism as a form of racism—an important step in challenging its normalisation and acceptance.
Images from last year’s La Vuelta cycling race went viral, showing how collective action—carefully organised across diverse groups—can disrupt the sportswashing of Israel and challenge its normalisation.
It is people who have pushed the government to this point.
In October 2025, under pressure from civil society, the Spanish government approved a Royal Decree that claims to limit its military relations with Israel. It has been presented as an embargo. But it is not a TOTAL embargo. What the Spanish government is doing matters. But it is not enough. And the position of the European Union is, unfortunately, far worse.
But we, as civils societies know the path, and the path forward is clear. The European Union has the tools: suspend Article 2 of the Association Agreement, ban trade with Israel, enforce a comprehensive arms embargo, and activate sanctions in response to its violations.
Only then Europe would begin to meet its legal obligations—instead of repeating the patterns of colonialism and racism that have shaped both its past and its present.
What Israel is doing in Palestine is beyond words—and it is spreading this violence across the region, from Lebanon to Syria, Iran, and beyond. This is not a war. It is a genocide. And it continues only because it is sustained by international complicity and impunity. Israel, together with the United States, represents one of the greatest threats o a just and lasting peace today. And the EU it’s, simply ,a SHAME.
In the face of genocide, neutrality is not an option. Nor are double standards. The International Court of Justice has made it clear: states cannot remain indifferent. Words do not stop bombs. Condemnation without action is complicity. These are legal obligations.
But this is not only about governments. It is about us, normal people making complicity harder and harder to sustain.
What we demand today, here, in Viena, is what we demand for all humanity Because the struggle for Palestine is connected to every struggle against racism, colonialism, and injustice. Because Palestinian cause is the cause of the humanity.
We will continue organising, mobilising, building pressure untill all complicitiy ends, until there is a full arms embargo, until governments move form words to action. We will not stop. Not until justiceis done, not until Palestine is free!
