JAKARTA – The Israeli Minister of Defense criticized Barcelona’s young star, Lamine Yamal, for waving the Palestinian flag during the celebration of the LaLiga title victory, saying the act was inciting hatred.
“Lamine Yamal chose to incite hatred against Israel while our soldiers are fighting the Hamas terrorist organization, an organization that slaughtered, raped, and burned Jewish children, women, and parents on October 7 (2023),” wrote Israeli Minister Katz on X on Thursday, May 14, 2026.
Yamal, 18, waved a large Palestinian flag from an open-top bus during Barcelona’s team’s victory parade through the city on Monday, May 11, 2026 local time. The parade attracted an estimated 750,000 people to celebrate the league title.
Yamal, who is Muslim, uploaded a photo of himself holding a Palestinian flag on his Instagram account.
The Spanish government and most of its population are highly critical of Israel’s military operations that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in response to Hamas’ surprise attack in 2023.
Then on Thursday, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, supported Yamal’s actions, stating that he was only expressing the solidarity with the Palestinians felt by millions of Spaniards.
Lamine Yamal raises the Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s championship parade (Instagram/@lamineyamal).
“Those who believe that waving the flag of a sovereign country means inciting hatred have lost their common sense or have been blinded by their own shame,” Sanchez said in a message posted on his official X account.
There has been a global reaction to Israel over the humanitarian impact of the war in Gaza, which has spread to sports and culture. Protests have been seen in football, cycling, and basketball.
Last year’s Vuelta a Espana was repeatedly disrupted by protesters angry at the participation of an Israeli-backed cycling team.
Spain is also one of five countries boycotting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel’s participation.
Yamal is scheduled to be Spain’s star at next month’s 2026 World Cup to be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language.
(system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
