Legal Professionals Rally in Support of Palestine in Las Palmas
Call for Justice Amidst Adverse Conditions
A sub-inspector ordered demonstrators to leave the shaded area beneath the building’s colonnade, where all protests are usually held, and to gather under the scorching sun at 40 degrees Celsius. The University Network for Palestine reminded spectators in front of the rectorate at ULPGC that “it is not normal to start this academic year normally.”
On Thursday, around one hundred people gathered at the Ciudad de la Justicia in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, a call extended to legal operators from the judicial district. Police attempted to disrupt the gathering by instructing organisers to remove their loudspeakers, banners, flags, and even themselves from the shaded area, exposing them to the relentless sunshine.
The situation escalated when the officers responsible for conveying the order, given by a sub-inspector, were questioned by the organisers about the rationale behind this clearly discriminatory decision. They highlighted that no officers had previously instructed judges, court officials, prosecutors, lawyers, or representatives to protest under such conditions regarding others’ demonstrations against, for example, the Government’s Amnesty Law. After a brief interval, the sub-inspector reconsidered and revoked the order, allowing the gathering to continue in the shade, despite the heat. However, one demonstrator did suffer heatstroke, necessitating assistance from emergency services.
The Voice of Law Echoes in Las Palmas
The event, conducted in front of a four-metre Palestinian flag displayed for attendees, involved readings of manifestos promoted by pro-Palestinian jurists, delivered by judicial officials, a Palestinian-descended lawyer, Alberto Hawach, humanitarian law professor Carmelo Faleh, law students, faculty, and notable members of the judiciary, including Gloria Poyatos, president of the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, Victoria Rosell, a judge from the Provincial Hearing’s First Section, and Carmen Simón, a judge from the Violence Against Women Court, along with a significant majority of social court judges.
“Today, Palestine is the grave of International Law, International Humanitarian Law, and Human Rights,” was a powerful statement from one of the manifestos. “Spain, as a state party to all these treaties, is legally obliged: under the Genocide Convention, under the Rome Statute, under Law 25/2014 which mandates the good faith fulfilment of treaties, under the EU Common Position prohibiting the export of weapons that could be used to violate Humanitarian Law, and under our own Constitution, whose Article 10 proclaims that the dignity of the individual is the foundation of the legal order.”
Regarding the famine declared by the UN in the Gaza Strip, legal professionals asserted that hunger is not an accident. “It is a war crime and an act of genocide.” Recognising their voice might seem small amidst the devastation in Gaza, they warned: “Our voice is the voice of Law. And no bomb, wall, or veto can silence it.”
