The Samidoun organization is collaborating on a conference that will be held on November 28 and 29 at the Somosaguas Campus of the Madrid university
The Faculty of Political Science at the Complutense University of Madrid will host an event on Friday and Saturday featuring Samidoun , a pro-Palestinian organization that supports prisoners and was outlawed in Germany in November 2023 for “promoting or supporting the use of violence as a means to achieve its political objectives.” In Canada , where the group is based, it was designated a terrorist organization and sanctioned by the United States in October 2024. Samidoun raises funds for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , a group considered terrorist by the European Union, Canada, and the United States.
Specifically, the event to be held at the public university in Madrid is called ” People’s Tribunal on Complicity with the Palestinian Genocide in the Spanish State .” The Academic Network Against Antisemitism in Universities criticizes the use of materials with “openly antisemitic terminology and conceptual frameworks ,” such as documentation on the “Zionist lobby.” According to this newspaper, the event, organized by the University Network for Palestine, will present evidence of institutional links and collaborations between Spain and Israel.
This network considers it “especially serious” that an event of this nature received institutional authorization and warns that such content may fall outside the bounds of current legislation, particularly regarding the prohibition of speech that incites hatred or discrimination against protected groups. Therefore, they are requesting that the university conduct an “immediate review” of its criteria for authorizing events and activities, ensuring that “discriminatory speech or incitement to hatred” is not legitimized.
For its part, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) has also issued a statement expressing its displeasure with the event at the Complutense University, which, they say, “targets Jewish institutions in our country.” The FCJE, which officially represents Spanish Jews and is among these organizations, considers the holding of an event that could single out and stigmatize the Jewish community “extremely worrying,” creating, they say, “a real risk to the safety of Spanish Jews.”
The State Coordinator for the Fight against Antisemitism has expressed, in the same vein, its firm rejection of an action, “presented under a supposed appearance of social legitimacy, but which resembles a form of antisemitic inquisition whose objective is to single out and stigmatize the Jewish community.”
