The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested four people and identified another four for their alleged relationship with the occupation of the Hotel Cortes in Barcelona, linked to the Israeli capital, in a pro-Palestinian protest called by social entities and unions last Saturday, October 21.
The detainees are related to entities defending the right to housing, such as Ateneu La Base, the Barrio del Poble Sec Union, the Housing Group of Tres Turons and the Tenants' Union, as reported by the lawyer group Alerta Solidària that represents them.
Specifically, they are accused of participating in the pro-Palestinian protest that occupied the Hotel Cortés de Barcelona located in the Barcelona district of Ciutat Vella, which led the Catalan police to intervene to evict the activists who had gathered in the lobby of the tourist establishment. .
During the mobilization, a hundred protesters occupied the building for about an hour under the slogan 'Let's stop the genocide in Gaza', which they claim is owned by an Israeli magnate linked to the country's military industry, in protest of the Israeli offensive. in Gaza. The occupants accessed the balconies on the building's façade, where they removed the flags of several countries that were flying there and replaced them with the Palestinian one.
In fact, the Hotel Cortés itself has filed a complaint in the Barcelona courts in which it accuses of a hate crime not only the activists who occupied the establishment, but also the organizing entities: the Palestinian Community of Catalonia and the platform Prou Complicitat. This last platform includes around twenty parties, unions and social entities against which the complaint is also directed, including Barcelona en Comú, CC.OO., UGT, USTEC, the National Youth Council of Catalonia and the from Barcelona.
In parallel to the complaint, the hotel owners have filed a complaint with the Generalitat's Body for the Protection and Promotion of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination, in which they request financial sanctions against the organizers of the protest event.
