Israeli authorities have detained nearly 175 activists who were on board vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla intercepted at dawn in international waters south of Greece, about a thousand kilometers from the coasts of the Gaza Strip and Israel. According to the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, among these detainees are two citizens from the Balearic Islands and, on the vessels near Crete, there are four more islanders.

Tica Font (Vall d’Uixó, 1956) is the president and researcher at the Delàs Centre for Peace Studies. A graduate in Physics from the University of València, she has been the director of the Catalan International Institute for Peace and president of the Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace. She is an expert in defense economics, arms trade, defense budgets, and the military industry. Font is one of the expert voices at the II Peace Conference organized by the Mallorca per la Pau platform and makes it clear that wars are a pretext for doing business.

A group of islanders (three from Mallorca and one from Menorca) will depart for Gaza from Barcelona this week with a new humanitarian flotilla. We speak with Lluís (Ciutadella) and Toni (Sant Llorenç), who have decided to join the new Flotilla Summud. Both share a goal: to force the opening of a sustained humanitarian corridor. The action combines the sending of aid with the will to denounce and raise awareness: “It is also a way to mobilize people and pressure governments to act,” they explain.

Palma experienced a demonstration this Sunday on the occasion of Palestinian Land Day that brought together about 200 people. The mobilization, called by the platform Citizens for Palestine, set off from the Pere Garau neighborhood and paraded through several streets in the center with Palestinian flags and banners demanding an end to the war in Gaza.

The solidarity initiative driven by Marches of Mallorca for Palestine has managed to mobilize the island's educational community with the collection of more than 200 backpacks destined for the population of Gaza. The project, called Backpacks for Gaza, is part of an action to support the international flotilla that will depart from the port of Barcelona on April 12 with humanitarian aid.

We've been told about World War III so many times that when it finally arrives, we won't believe it. Just as we never imagined a politician like Donald Trump could exist, an egomaniac who has undermined the role of a leader in a democratic state, decency, and any sense of the ridiculous. Having become a caricature and a mirror for far-right populists, he threatens the world order, driven by his megalomania. If you stir up hornets' nests in Ukraine, Venezuela, Gaza, Greenland, and Iran, sooner or later one of them will sting us all.

Hundreds of people gathered this Friday in Palma's Plaza de las Tortugas to express their rejection of the war in the Middle East and other conflicts such as those in Palestine and Ukraine.

Several demonstrations in Palma, Sóller, Inca, and Artà this Friday have once again highlighted the rejection by a segment of the public of armed violence and international inaction in the face of the genocide that, according to the organizers, is taking place in Palestine. The mobilizations, driven by social and pacifist groups, were intended as an explicit call to not normalize barbarity or silence in the face of crimes against humanity that are being witnessed "live" and are extensively documented internationally.

The Palma City Council, with votes in favor from the People's Party (PP) and Vox, censured councilwoman Lucía Muñoz of the Unidas Podemos party for expressing her desire for the disappearance of the State of Israel and a Palestine "free from the river to the sea." The motion, promoted by Santiago Abascal's party, had already received approval during last week's Citizen Services Committee meeting and was ratified this Thursday in the plenary session. During her speech, Muñoz stated that although the City Council censured her, history would absolve her; unlike the PP and Vox council members, she countered, who would be remembered as "miserable accomplices in the genocide of the Palestinian people." Muñoz said the censure stemmed from her opposition to the "genocide" that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza, "where they murder children, bomb schools and hospitals, and annihilate entire populations," she pointed out. In his view, any state "sustained by war crimes, colonization, and plunder based on a genocidal project" should end like Nazi Germany: "With the dismantling of its structures, those responsible imprisoned, and a process of denazification," he stated.

The National Police have arrested three men and a woman in Palma as alleged perpetrators of an attack against authority and public disorder during the demonstration on October 5th in Palma in solidarity with the Israeli hijacking of the flotilla and the people on board as it headed to Gaza.

The tenth annual Lighting of Towers, Watchtowers, and Talayots for Human Rights in the Mediterranean will take place on January 31, 2026, with the aim of making this sea "a place of life, not death," explained Maribel Arnau, the Island Director of Heritage for the Consell de Mallorca. The objective is to reaffirm the collective commitment to defending human rights and welcoming refugees, and "to highlight our heritage to remind us that these historical sites can also symbolize values we share as a society," she added.

Palma is hosting the Senior Fencing World Cup from November 6th to 9th, bringing together 450 fencers and more than 50 teams. Among the participating countries, the organization Citizens for Palestine has denounced the presence of Israel. "We cannot allow a genocidal state to become normalized anywhere," they stated. Therefore, they have encouraged citizens to continue protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people and to boycott Israel. "There will be no peace until there is justice," they declared.

The Blat restaurant in Palma's Sac district will host a symbolic event to show solidarity with the people of Gaza suffering from hunger as a result of the genocide perpetrated by Israel. The event, which arose from a citizen initiative, will take place this Sunday at 12 noon at the restaurant located on Blanquerna Street in Palma.

She's still processing everything she's experienced in recent weeks with the Global Sumud Flotilla, along with Alejandra Martínez and Reyes Rigo, who spent more time there after biting a civil servant. What was supposed to be a ten-day journey to Palestine turned into a long and difficult trip, with some very complicated days in an Israeli prison. Activist Lucía Muñoz (Palma, 1993) takes stock of her experience, the criticism she's received, and the intersection of local and global politics.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Palma this Wednesday in support of Palestine and to urge a boycott of Israel in a demonstration held to coincide with the general strike for the same cause.

The general strike called this Wednesday in support of the Palestinian people and against the Israeli genocide has registered an average of 10 percent participation in public services in the Balearic Islands, according to the STEI (Spanish Institute of Education). In the education sector, the strike was attended by a total of 796 teachers, according to data provided by the Ministry of Education. Of these, 740 belong to public schools and 56 to the private sector, which places the public sector at 93% of the total participation. By island, Mallorca accounts for the majority of participation, with 584 teachers, followed by Ibiza (129), Menorca (77), and Formentera (3). On all the islands, participation was clearly majority in public schools, and in Ibiza and Formentera, it was exclusively public, with no private sector teachers supporting the strike. In Menorca, 98.7% of the teachers who participated in the strike were from public schools, while in Mallorca, private schools were more prominent but still a minority, accounting for around 9.4% of participants.

Members of the "Carot, Enough Complicity" campaign, made up of students and staff at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), have publicly denounced the fact that some professors have threatened to "punish" those who support the Palestinian strike scheduled for this Wednesday. They also warned students, according to a statement from the platform, that assessment activities will be carried out in their absence.

The Government has established the minimum services that will apply during the general strike this Wednesday, October 15, 2025, called to condemn the genocide in Palestine and demand peace. These strikes affect sectors such as education, healthcare, transportation, public administration, social services, and the environment. Therefore, the Executive has established that essential services will be active to guarantee service to citizens.