Lamine Yamal’s Palestine flag wave hailed by fans, activists and athletes

Prominent Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha commented on Yamal’s post, saying, “We love you, from Gaza.”

The Barca striker’s British teammate Marcus Rashford and Dutch footballer Anwar El Ghazi were among the 166,000 people to comment on his post, which comprised seven photos.

Gesture ‘highlights the bond between Catalonia and Palestine’

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which was launched in 2005 to advocate for Palestinian rights and end Israel’s occupation in Palestinian territory, also appreciated Yamal’s heroics.

“Thanks for this gesture full of humanity,” the movement’s Spanish account tweeted. “Sport has the power to make visible what the world must not forget.”

Palestinian football expert Bassil Mikdadi said Yamal highlighted the true spirit of Barcelona football club.

“Over the past two decades, FC Barcelona has morphed into a hyper-commercialised entity,” he wrote on X. “First came the shirt sponsorship, then the stadium naming rights, and then the palancas. Lamine Yamal shows what the club and its fans are really about.”

Meanwhile, a number of pro-Israel social media users attacked Yamal and said he “should never don the Spain shirt” and that his actions should be enough to ensure he does not win the prestigious Ballon d’Or award despite his on-field performance for club and country.

Others, though, praised him for not worrying about the consequences and standing up for the oppressed.

“Lamine Yamal raising the Palestinian flag is a powerful gesture of solidarity and human dignity,” said Barcelona-based academic and activist Neus Torbisco Casals.

“It’s a reminder that sport can also be a voice against genocide, oppression, and in favour of peoples’ freedom,” she continued in a long post on X.

“A very brave Catalan boy for speaking out when there are a thousand pressures to stay silent. These gestures can inspire millions of people around the world.

“Many people have highlighted the bond between Catalonia and Palestine because we share the same aspiration to exercise universal collective human rights: the right to self-determination, to preserve identity, language, culture, and to live without domination inspired by colonialism or, in the case of Palestine, racial apartheid.

“True solidarity rejects domination in all its forms and defends the equality and dignity of all peoples, not just states. The struggle against oppression is universal: when a people defends its freedom and dignity, it also speaks for all peoples who resist injustice. Bravo Lamine.”

Yamal, a Muslim whose father moved from Morocco to Spain, has previously spoken out against racism and Islamophobia in Spanish football.

Last month, he slammed the anti-Muslim fan chants heard in Spain’s friendly match against Egypt and issued a strong statement on his social media accounts.

“I am a Muslim. Yesterday at the stadium, the chant ‘The one who doesn’t jump is the Muslim’ was heard,” he posted.

“I know I was playing for the rival team, and it wasn’t something personal against me, but as a Muslim person, it doesn’t stop being disrespectful and something intolerable.”

Yamal has scored 30 goals in more than 100 appearances for Barcelona and six in 25 caps for his national team.

The prodigious player has garnered a wide following globally and has many fans in Palestine, from where the outpouring of love for his gesture continued hours after the viral video clips first emerged.

“Just 14 seconds … yet they were enough to make me burst into tears,” wrote Haitham el-Masri, a Palestinian student from Gaza.

“One moment that will remain forever in history, remembered as one of the most deeply human moments witnessed by the world,” he went on to add.

I cannot fully describe what we felt seeing people who still have the courage to speak the truth, and to stand beside a people enduring one of the most horrific genocides in modern history.

Thank you to everyone who supported us, everyone who spoke for us, everyone who refused to stay silent and chose humanity instead.

You cannot imagine how much this love, this care, and this solidarity mean to us… the feeling that we still matter in this world.

From the heart of Gaza…
Thank you from the depths of our hearts.
Thank you for making us feel that we are not alone.”