Basque Police Beat Global Sumud Flotilla Torture Survivors In Spain
The brutal Bilbao beating exposes €1.6M Israeli training program for Basque police.
The video from Bilbao Airport today is as brutal as it is bewildering. Six Basque activists walk through arrivals, fresh from being intercepted, detained, and abused by Israeli forces while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, carrying physical and psychological scars from their encounter with the Israeli military.
Basque police beating Israeli torture survivors is institutional.
These are the same cops who've taken €1.6M in Israeli security contracts,trained by former Mossad agents, and equipped with Israeli surveillance tech.
Basque police, the Ertzaintza, descended on Loiu Airport with batons drawn. They attacked the activists and the friends and family who had gathered to welcome them home. Four people were arrested, charged with “desobediencia grave, resistencia y atentado a agente de la autoridad” — the standard playbook for criminalizing solidarity.
The images are shocking: police beating people who had just survived Israeli captivity. People being dragged and handcuffed as they step off a plane, bringing back evidence of Israeli war crimes.
The Ertzaintza presents itself as a different kind of police force. Created in 1982 as part of Basque autonomy, it’s supposed to be more responsive to local communities, and less like the centralized Spanish national police.
The truth is, the Ertzaintza has a long-standing, multifaceted relationship with Israel that goes far beyond the Spanish government’s official positions on Palestine.
Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about:
Technology & Equipment: The Ertzaintza has purchased Israeli technology and equipment for years. Its phone-tapping system comes from Verint Systems, an Israeli company with deep ties to Israeli military intelligence. An Israeli firm, ICTS, has managed security at some of their facilities. They’ve used Israeli body armor, surveillance cameras, and listening devices.
Training & Services: The Ertzaintza has participated in training from Israeli sources, including courses from Guardian Defense & Homeland Security — a company run by a former Mossad agent that has provided “live fire” training to Spanish police.
Financial Ties: These aren’t minor transactions. Basque institutions have reportedly spent over €1.66 million on contracts with Israeli-linked security companies. In 2021 the Ertzaintza signed a contract for €3,569.50 just for “supply of stun and distraction grenade carriers” from these same Israeli sources.
This is the institutional reality that contradicts the political rhetoric.
For years, Israel has aggressively cultivated relationships with European police forces through security training programs. Companies like Israeli Tactical School, International Protection Services, and ISA Security Academy market themselves as premier counter-terrorism experts. Their instructors come from Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service. Their doctrine emphasizes aggressive tactics, crowd suppression, and treating dissent as security threat.
The Israeli Tactical School openly boasts of training “security professionals worldwide” in “counter-terrorism and executive protection.” Their curriculum includes “close-quarters battle” and “counter-surveillance” — tactics designed for high-risk environments that aren’t exactly what you’d expect at an airport arrivals gate.
When Israeli forces sexually assault, torture, and brutalize international activists bringing aid to Gaza, those actions send a clear message to every police force they’ve trained: “This is how you handle people who challenge us. And you should be doing the same.”
While Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has positioned himself as a critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, calling for investigations and even suspending the EU-Israel association agreement, the institutional reality on the ground tells a different story.
The Spanish government may condemn Israeli atrocities in public statements, but its security apparatus maintains deep ties with Israeli military and security contractors.
This explains why the Ertzaintza behaved the way they did in Bilbao. They’re part of a security ecosystem that views Palestinian solidarity activists through the same lens as Israeli security forces.
It’s the same logic that allows far-right agitator Dani Esteve to publicly call for bombing the flotilla and lead demonstrations in Madrid with complete impunity. When the system views Palestinian solidarity as a threat to national security — a lesson learned from Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine — it will act accordingly.
Why Bilbao? Why Now?
Timing matters. The Global Sumud Flotilla arrived as global pressure on Israel reaches unprecedented levels. South Korea has condemned Israeli actions. The Netherlands has banned settlement products. Even in the US, the pro-Israel lobby is losing ground with more Americans sympathizing with Palestinians rather than Israelis for the first time.
Israel and their proxies know they’re losing the battle for global legitimacy. So they’re doubling down on repression — not just in occupied territories, but in European cities too.
The Ertzaintza’s attack was an attack on the credibility of Spain’s entire Palestine position. It exposed the hypocrisy of a government that talks solidarity while practicing complicity.
This is the contradiction at the heart of European “solidarity” with Palestine. You can condemn Israeli genocide in Brussels while your police enforce the same logic of repression domestically. You can call for accountability while your institutions actively suppress the movement demanding that accountability.
The contrast between Barcelona and Bilbao tells the story. In Barcelona, the activists were welcomed by Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, who called for investigations into Israeli “tortures” and denounced the interception as “piracy.” In Bilbao, they were met with batons and arrests.
This is about the fundamental contradiction between Spain’s supposed solidarity with Palestine and its institutional entanglement with Israel’s security apparatus.
The activists who sailed for Gaza weren’t just bringing humanitarian aid — they were bringing back evidence of Israeli war crimes. And in that evidence lies a challenge to the very system that profits from Israeli technology and training.
When the police attacked them in Bilbao, they were attacking the activists and attacking the evidence. They were actually attacking the truth, protecting the institutional ties that bind them to the same security logic that abuses Palestinians.
The Spanish government can condemn Israeli atrocities all it wants. But until it cuts the institutional ties that train police in Israeli security doctrine, until it stops purchasing Israeli surveillance technology, until it ends the contracts with Israeli security firms — its words will remain empty.
The activists who survived Israeli captivity only to be attacked by Spanish police understand this reality better than anyone. They’ve seen firsthand how the same logic of control and violence connects Tel Aviv to Bilbao.
The Real Question
The real question is why any police force would choose alignment with an occupying power over protecting their own citizens.
When Ertzaintza beat people welcoming home activists who survived Israeli detention, they were protecting the system that allows Israeli forces to commit torture with impunity. They were protecting the illusion that Spain can be a genuine ally to Palestine while its institutions do Israel’s dirty work at home.
Another world is possible. But it won’t be built by police forces that beat activists for supporting freedom. It won’t be built by governments that condemn Israeli genocide while enabling it at home.
The Basque activists understood this. That’s why they sailed to Gaza. And that’s why Ertzaintza was so damn afraid of them coming home.
Meanwhile, Israel is busy gaslighting the world:
Absolutely brilliant piece bringing into focus the complicity of police forces with Israel not only in Bilbao, but the contradictions that lay bare between public acts and private dealings. That also explains to me the brutality of the German, French and US police against solidarity activists and demonstrators. Remember the brutality on college campuses with the solidarity students?!!! Such entrenched symbiotic relationships keeping this tiny colonial usurper to enjoy so much impunity for their bestial acts.
Just so disappointing to see this occurring in Spain. I hope its people will demand an end to all complicity in the genocide of Palestinians.