Ammon News - Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao held a special pre-match ceremony to express solidarity with the Palestinian people before their La Liga match against Mallorca on Saturday.

A group of eleven Palestinian refugees residing in the Basque Country – autonomous community of Spain – and representatives of UNRWA, walked on to the San Mames stadium as Athletic fans waved the Palestinian flag and gave them a standing ovation.

At the same time, the stadium’s video scoreboards displayed the message: “Athletic Palestinaren alde. Stop genozidioa,” meaning “Athletic stands with Palestine. Stop the genocide.”

Amon those who walked the pitch, was also Honey Thaljieh, the former captain and co-founder of the Palestinian women’s national football team.

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The Spanish club’s pre-match demonstration is a part of a wider ongoing project between the Athletic Club Foundation and UNRWA Euskadi. The collaboration, which started in October, aims to support nearly 8000 Palestinian refugee children in Syria by providing them with physical education classes across 16 schools managed by the UN agency.