Spanish minister urges Vuelta to consider dropping Israeli team
Spain's youth minister on Thursday criticised the director of the Vuelta a Espana for calling a protest against the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team a "violent act" and urged him to reconsider the team's participation.
In a letter to Vuelta director Javier Guillen, Sira Rego said it was "completely unacceptable" to label a peaceful protest against a team backed by a state accused of "systematic violence" against Gaza as violent.
She also highlighted international warnings of famine and the humanitarian impact on children.
"That truly constitutes the cruelest and most terrifying act of violence, with irreversible consequences for an entire society. In short, a genocide," Rego wrote, also posting the letter on social media.
The protest occurred Wednesday at the start of the fifth-stage time trial in Figueras, northeastern Spain.
On a video circulating on social media three people can be seen holding a banner with the inscription "Neutrality is complicity. Boycott Israel", before being removed by race officials.
Some riders slowed, but no accidents were reported.
Guillen said Vuelta organisers would file a police complaint, describing the protest as "an act of violence."
The Israel-Premier Tech team faced similar protests during the Tour de France.
Rego, a member of the far-left Sumar party, asked Guillen to consider whether the team's participation aligns with the Vuelta's values.
She is of Palestinian descent on her father's side and spent part of her early childhood in the West Bank.
Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,895 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN considers those figures reliable.
The Vuelta a Espana is one of cycling's three biggest stage races, along with the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.