The Palestinian national team is appearing in two friendly matches in an unprecedented presence inside Europe, facing two teams that represent the Basque Country and Catalonia. Both regions are known for their historic solidarity with the Palestinian cause and their prominent stances against the occupation during the war of extermination against the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian team received a rousing welcome upon its arrival at Bilbao Airport ahead of its match against the Basque team, which was held on Saturday at San Mamés Stadium in solidarity with the victims of the Israeli genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, with nearly 50,000 people in attendance.
The Palestinian team is also scheduled to play another match against the Catalonia team next Tuesday, the same match that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola called on Barcelona fans to attend in support of the victims of the Israeli assault on Gaza.
The Basque Country
Basque nationalism is built on the idea that the Basque people, Euskadi, are a distinct nation spanning territories in northern Spain and southern France. This nationalism calls for full independence or broad autonomy, defends Basque cultural and political unity, and regards the Basque language as a central symbol of identity.
The roots of this orientation go back to the late nineteenth century with Sabino Arana, who founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) after the end of the Carlist Wars and the Bourbon regime’s abolition of traditional Basque feudal customs.
At first, the Basques grounded their identity in religious and local traditional values. After the Second World War, and following the fall of the Franco dictatorship in 1975, the focus shifted to protecting language and culture.
Several Basque nationalist parties became active, most notably the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which adopted a stance calling for autonomy. Left-wing nationalist parties, meanwhile, embraced full independence, with a large faction engaging in armed struggle through the organisation ETA, founded in 1959 and dissolved in 2018.
Throughout this period, Basque speakers suffered political repression, especially when Franco banned the use of the region’s language, which reinforced the sense of national distinctiveness and the desire for self-determination.
The Palestinian national team received a rousing welcome when it arrived at Bilbao Airport ahead of its first match against the Basque team. Athletic Bilbao, which owns San Mamés Stadium, is known for its strong support for the Palestinian cause. Its fans have previously raised banners during a match calling for an end to the genocide.
Before kick-off, inside the stadium decorated with the colours of the Palestinian flag and the flag of the region, the face of the shocked, screaming woman from Picasso’s “Guernica” spread across the centre circle. This painting, 3.5 metres long and displayed at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, portrays the horror that befell the northern Basque village of Guernica when General Franco gave Adolf Hitler free rein to test his war tactics on innocent civilians.
The woman in the painting screams for help that never comes, while her home burns around her in scenes of sheer terror. The painting was created as a message to the Basque people against the oppressor and has been chosen as a symbol for the match in solidarity with a nation currently subjected to a campaign of genocide at the hands of the Israeli occupation army, as reported by the Spanish newspaper AS.
On 16 September, ahead of their match against English side Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League at the same stadium, Athletic Bilbao fans raised a banner bearing the Palestinian flag and the slogan, “We are with you from today until the very last day”.
Athletic Bilbao also showed its support for Palestine by organising a fan event at its stadium before a match against Real Mallorca in the eighth round of La Liga, a step that was widely welcomed globally.
Catalonia
Catalan nationalism is a social and political independence movement rooted in Catalan identity. It considers Catalonia a “state and nation” with its own history, language, and culture, and seeks independence for the region from Spain.
This movement emerged clearly in the early twentieth century and gained strength during General Franco’s rule, during which Catalan culture and language were harshly suppressed.
After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain adopted a new constitution in 1978 that affirmed the “indivisible unity of the Spanish nation”, but at the same time recognised the right of regions to self-government. However, Catalan nationalist parties rejected this partial solution and continued to pursue full self-determination.
In recent decades, independence demands have intensified through political and popular campaigns. The region witnessed an unofficial referendum on independence in 2017 and a declaration of independence by the Catalan Parliament, which the central government confronted with legal measures.
Throughout the months of genocide, Guardiola, former players, and sporting figures expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause and voiced their rejection of the Israeli occupation and the unprecedented genocidal crimes against the Gaza Strip.
Beyond the sporting sphere, activists and workers in Catalonia organised large demonstrations and solidarity rallies with Palestine. On 27 September 2024, Barcelona witnessed a general strike and a massive march attended by tens of thousands of people expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and calling for an end to the war on Gaza.
Before that, former leftist mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau had led a campaign to cut ties with the Israeli occupation in 2022. The boycott was reactivated after the outbreak of the genocide in 2023, when the city council was forced in November 2023 to again sever relations in response to the will of the region’s residents, for whom Barcelona is its most important city.
Intersection Of Struggles
The Basques and Catalans share with the Palestinians several key elements of national struggle. Each group regards its people as a nation with a distinct language and culture exposed to marginalisation in Spain, compared with extermination and erasure in Palestine. The demand for self-determination forms the cornerstone of both the Basque and Catalan nationalist movements, just as it does in the Palestinian struggle.
In all cases there is a general sense of political repression by the central authority. Catalans and Basques suffered under Franco’s dictatorship, which deprived them of their languages and cultural traditions, while Palestinians see themselves as a people subjected to systematic oppression through Israeli occupation and settlement, which has driven most of them to demand an independent state.
These movements are also united by values of resistance and rejection of tutelage. Basque and Catalan nationalists wage political and rights-based battles to make their peoples’ voices heard, much like the Palestinians, who have turned to international law and popular protest to affirm their inalienable right to self-determination.
The positions of solidarity from Catalonia and the Basque Country have not been limited to the Palestinian cause alone, but have extended to other peoples seeking independence or defending their rights.
Catalonia has shown a strong sense of solidarity with indigenous peoples in Latin America. In June 2019, the region’s foreign minister, Alfred Bosch, issued an official apology to indigenous peoples in Mexico for the injustices committed during the Spanish conquest, affirming his support for their demands to restore their dignity and claim their rights.
This came within the broader context of his interest in indigenous peoples’ rights in general and his support for their right to self-determination, with the Mexican side welcoming this message of solidarity.
Regional leaders have also expressed their support for the principles of international justice. For example, the Catalan and Basque governments have, on various occasions, condemned human rights violations around the world and called for respect for international law.
In September 2025, the Basque government issued an official statement calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, strongly condemning the use of hunger as a weapon of war and the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, and affirming its explicit support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA.
