The controversy is heating up in the sport of Tenerife. This week, attention has focused on the possibility of La Vuelta a España concluding its 2026 edition with several stages in Canarias. The participation of Israel Premier-Tech during the 2025 edition led to one of the most tumultuous experiences in its history, featuring protests and pro-Palestinian pickets at various stages, and has prompted a division of opinions regarding the appropriateness of holding this event in both Tenerife and the Archipelago.
Additionally, there’s an element of chance following the Basketball Champions League draw last July. The Club Baloncesto Canarias has been placed in the same group as one of the two Israeli teams competing in the BCL, Bnei Herzliya, with their match scheduled for November 14 at the Santiago Martín. Both situations have polarized opinions among the various parties on the island.
Regarding La Vuelta
At the beginning of the week, Antonio Morales, the President of the Gran Canaria Cabildo, expressed his opposition to holding La Vuelta in Canarias if Israel Premier-Tech remains in the peloton. In Tenerife, opinions have fluctuated as different political parties have voiced their positions.
From the Tenerife Cabildo, Vice President Lope Afonso has reaffirmed the intention to bring multiple stages of one of the world’s premier cycling competitions to the island. With a pact in place, although not yet signed, between both provincial institutions, the Government of Canarias and La Vuelta’s management, he stated that “it would be madness not to seize the opportunity to host an event as significant as the Vuelta a España.”
Interest will remain as long as security, organisation, and logistics can be ensured for the event: “If there are issues, we certainly do not want to bring them.” This situation has met with strong opposition from the rival party.
Both at the regional and local level, the PSOE is pushing for a boycott of La Vuelta should it involve the presence of Israel Premier-Tech on the island. “The inclusion of this team would be whitewashing genocide through sport“, asserted both the General Secretary of the PSOE in Tenerife, Tamara Raya, and the party’s Organisation Secretary in Canarias, Nira Fierro.
The first socialist mayor to voice opposition to La Vuelta was Luis Yeray Gutiérrez. The mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna expressed his “total and absolute rejection” of the event passing through his municipality. This stance has also affected another Israeli presence in his area of governance.
CB Canarias hosts Bnei Herzliya
The Club Baloncesto Canarias is set to host Bnei Herzliya, one of the Israeli teams competing in the Basketball Champions League, on November 14 at the Santiago Martín. This has been highlighted by the first deputy mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carlos Tarife, in a recent post on social media.
Simultaneously, Podemos Canarias has called for the suspension of this match and the expulsion of the Israeli team from the competition. For the purple party, the team’s presence in this European competition normalises “complicity with a genocidal state and whitewashes systematic human rights violations.”
They refer to Bnei Herzliya as one of the institutions within the Israeli Premier League, linked to Israel’s propaganda apparatus and military sponsorship, “just like Israel Premier-Tech.”
