{"id":1663,"date":"2026-05-15T13:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2026-05-15T13:46:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T05:46:58","slug":"spain-pm-proud-of-barcelonas-yamal-in-palestinian-flag-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/spain-pm-proud-of-barcelonas-yamal-in-palestinian-flag-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain PM &#8216;proud&#8217; of Barcelona&#8217;s Yamal in Palestinian flag row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"651\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-19.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-19.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-19-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-19-768x500.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday said Barcelona star Lamine Yamal had made Spain &#8220;proud&#8221; for waving a Palestinian flag at a victory parade that sparked Israeli accusations of &#8220;inciting hatred&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 18-year-old forward drew attention for brandishing a Palestinian flag during an open-top bus parade through Barcelona on Monday as the Catalan giants celebrated their second straight La Liga title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz lashed out at the Spain star on Thursday, saying he chose to &#8220;incite hatred&#8221; against his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I hope a great and respected club like Barcelona distances itself from these remarks and makes it unambiguously clear that there is no place for incitement or support for terrorism,&#8221; Katz said on X in Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel who has called its devastating two-year war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza a &#8220;genocide&#8221;, hit back in defence of Yamal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Those who think that waving the flag of a state is &#8216;inciting hatred&#8217;, they have either lost their minds or they have been blinded by their own disgrace,&#8221; he wrote on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Lamine just expressed the solidarity with Palestine that millions of Spaniards feel. Yet another reason to be proud of him,&#8221; Sanchez added. Yamal&#8217;s support for the Palestinian cause &#8211; which enjoys widespread popularity in Spain &#8211; has not gone unnoticed in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Artists at a refugee camp in the mostly destroyed territory have painted a mural on rubble depicting Yamal waving a Palestinian flag, an AFP journalist saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said he &#8220;didn&#8217;t like&#8221; Yamal&#8217;s actions, but accepted that &#8220;if he wants to do it, it&#8217;s his decision.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Relations between Spain and Israel have plummeted since the start of the Gaza war, sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel recalled its ambassador after Madrid recognised a Palestinian state in 2024, while Spain formally dismissed its own top envoy in Tel Aviv in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday said Barcelona star Lamine Yamal had made Spain &#8220;proud&#8221; for waving a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1665,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions\/1665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}