Overview
- Lamine Yamal waved a large Palestinian flag from Barcelona’s open‑top bus during the title parade on Monday in front of an estimated 750,000 fans and later posted the images on Instagram.
- Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz on Thursday called the act an incitement to hate and urged FC Barcelona to distance itself from the gesture.
- Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez publicly backed the 18‑year‑old, saying the flag signaled solidarity with Palestine felt by many in Spain.
- FC Barcelona told its Israeli fan club that Yamal’s action was spontaneous and said it would not include the image in official replays or photo distributions out of sensitivity.
- The clash plays out as Spain–Israel relations remain strained since the Gaza war and Spain’s 2024 recognition of a Palestinian state, with protests increasingly spilling into sports.