Police remove a Palestinian flag from a crowded band after a disturbance in Menorca.
A Maó agent asked for it to be removed so that the march of more than half a thousand people would not be considered an unauthorized demonstration.
PalmA local police officer in Mahón had a Palestinian flag removed from a crowded protest march yesterday, Sunday, with more than 500 people, just hours after the end of the festivities in Sant Climent.
According to ARA Baleares According to several witnesses, the events took place at dusk, during the festive marching band that the Bon Ball Tenim group of singers were performing through the streets of the town. Some of the people accompanying them were carrying cardboard horses, simulating a jaleo (a kind of jaleo), which headed from the Sa Taverna bar to Pla de Sant Climent itself, still dusty with sand from the horse festival that had just taken place.
The organizers' idea was to make a couple of turns and make a symbolic presentation of green canes to the bearers of the horses, as is traditionally done in town jaleos in Menorca. As the crowd approached the square, the president of the residents' association, Dani Olives, approached the pair of local police officers who were there to ask if it was necessary to take any kind of measure due to the large attendance recorded, which had exceeded the promoters' own expectations.
It was then that one of the officers conditioned the continuation of the march on the removal, or at least not the display, of the Palestinian flag, since it could be considered an unauthorized political demonstration.
The parade was able to continue its route and handed out the beers, but with the Palestinian flag lying in a corner on the platform and unable to be displayed publicly. Even so, some of the cardboard horses, which were also painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, were able to continue the celebration without problems.
Municipal sources explain that they acted out of prudence and to avoid problems after a citizen complaint was received about the presence of the flag in the march and insist that, after all, the activity was able to take place without any incidents.
The Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip has not gone unnoticed in Menorca, where the Menorca-Palestine Solidarity Committee has organized several protests against the events. Last week, the magazine Posidonia It was also added with a rally and a public letter where more than a hundred journalists demanded an end to the killing of journalists and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
