From the heroine of La Casa de Babel to Gaza: We will not stand by and watch this genocide
La Casa de Papel star, Itziar Ituno made her contribution to supporting the victims in Gaza calling for an immediate ceasefire during a demonstration in Guernica City. The Spanish actress, better known for her role as police detective Raquel Murillo in the popular Netflix series, joined a massive pro-Palestinian protest in the center of the town of Guernica in northern Spain and delivered a speech in which she described what is happening in Gaza as a campaign of genocide committed by Israeli forces.
Read more: Puma Ends Sponsorship of Israeli National Soccer Team
A video of the famous actress went viral on social media, looking very emotional during her speech, as she condemned Israel’s attack on Gaza, and expressed her sadness about the current events, “From Guernica to Palestine, from Guernica to the world! We want to say that after what we have been through, since the first bombing we were subjected to until today, history or the world cannot bear the destruction of one person. The world and history must not tolerate what is happening in Palestine. The world and history must not accept a new Guernica”, Ituno added to the thousands who gathered in the Basque town of Guernica in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Read more: Olivewood Film Studios: A Game-Changer for Jordan’s Film Industry
Speaking at the demonstration, Itziar Ituno compared the Palestinian city of Gaza to the Spanish Guernica, which suffered similar harsh conditions during the Spanish Civil War, “From Guernica, a town that occupies a cursed place among all the massacres in the history of humanity, we call for an end to the ongoing massacre committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian civilians, and we strongly and angrily condemn any complicity in this genocide”, the Spanish star said.
“We will not stand by and watch this genocide,” said the heroine of “La Casa de Papel” and concluded her speech, confirming: “The Palestinian citizens will carry our voices from Guernica wherever they are. Our dead are your dead… your destroyed homes are our homes. Your occupied land is our occupied land, and our daughters and your sons are our sons.”
Guernica bombing
The bombing of Guernica that the actress spoke about in her speech was an aerial bombardment that occurred on April 26, 1937, in the Basque village of Guernica, during the Spanish Civil War. The operation was carried out by the Condor Corps of the German Air Force and the Rapid Intervention Corps of the Italian Air Force, at the request of the Spanish National Front. The operation was dubbed “Operation Rügen”, and it was one of the first raids on an unarmed civilian population carried out by a modern air force. The number of victims from the bombing of Guernica remains undetermined today, estimated at between 800 and 1,654 dead.
The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since 7 October has led to the tragic loss of the lives of about 18,000 Palestinians, about 70 percent of whom are said to be women and children. These sad events dominated the attention of celebrities around the world. A group of US celebrities sent an open letter to President Joe Biden in order to urge him to take action in the midst of the ongoing crisis. The letter attracted a variety of signatories including Jennifer Lopez, Zayn Malik, Bella Hadid, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, Drake, Dua Lipa, Joaquin Phoenix, Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Michael Moore, and Sarah Jones, among others.
Many prominent Western names, along with these American celebrities, have engaged in individual efforts to speak out against the violence and strongly call for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza, as well as the urgency of a ceasefire.
