An Israeli flag being burned outside the Gran Canaria Arena located in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, ahead of a basketball game with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Photo: YouTube screenshot

Anti-Israel demonstrators set fire to an Israeli flag outside a sports arena in Spain’s Canary Islands, leading up to a basketball game featuring the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv that is set to take place at the arena on Thursday.

Activists from the pro-Palestinian group Canarias Insumisa set the Israeli flag on fire outside the Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas, the local news outlet Canraia Ahora reported on Tuesday. The move was in protest of Israel’s military actions during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and also in objection to the EuroCup basketball game taking place on Thursday at the Gran Canaria Arena between Hapoel Tel Aviv and the local team Gran Canaria.

The pro-Palestinian group claimed that the upcoming basketball game whitewashes the “genocide” that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. The group also falsely accused Israel of murdering “47,000 girls, boys, women and men in one year” during its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Canrais Ahora called on local fans not to attend the basketball game on Thursday, claiming that Israeli fans of Hapoel Tel Aviv may try to provoke them. The group described Hapoel Tel Aviv fans as “aggressive Nazi-Zionist hooligan fanatics who will try to provoke, create conflicts and attack the followers of the Canarian team,” according to the news outlet Canraia Ahora. The group also criticized the owner of Gran Canaria, claiming he had the chance to prevent the local Spanish team from competing against Hapoel Tel Aviv, but refused to do so.

The flag burning took place almost two months after fans of the Israeli soccer team Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Five men behind the premeditated and coordinated attack were sentenced in Dutch court late last month to community service and up to six months in jail.