Arab News | Allianz halts sponsorship of Spain fest over Israel row

MADRID: Allianz has suspended its sponsorship of one of Spain’s top cultural events after celebrities threatened a boycott over the German insurance giant’s ties to Israel, organizers said on Tuesday.

“Allianz is today the world’s largest buyer of Israeli state bonds and, therefore, an essential financial backer of the ongoing genocide,” the celebrities said in a statement, referring to the Gaza war launched after Hamas’s 2023 attacks on Israel.

They said they would snub the annual Festival of Ideas in Madrid unless it committed to “not accepting economic support, in this or future editions, from companies that collaborate with the State of Israel in the destruction of the Palestinian people”.

The festival cannot “contribute to the whitewashing of the economic actors which allow extermination, occupation and apartheid to take place”, added the more than 20 celebrities, including Oscar-nominated Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

The festival announced in a statement that it had agreed with Allianz to suspend the sponsorship of the event, due to run for four days from Thursday and see acclaimed British writer Zadie Smith take part.

“Both parties agree that the festival should continue to be a space dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, open debate and the diversity of opinions without any external controversy diverting attention from its program, participants or audience,” the statement read.

The Palestinian cause enjoys widespread support in Spain, whose Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has been one of the most virulent critics of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Last week, Spain was among 12 countries which announced sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as settler attacks on Palestinians increase there.