Bilbao beating exposes €1.6M Israeli training program for Basque police.
OUTRAGEOUS! In front of their families and the entire Basque press, our Flotilla volunteers were attacked by the airport police in Bilbao, Basque Country-Spain, upon returning to their home country. pic.twitter.com/CinNouZYjo
— Thiago Ávila (@thiagoavilabr) May 23, 2026
There is evidence of Israeli training and security cooperation involving the Ertzaintza (the Basque Autonomous Police), which is the main police force in Bilbao and the Basque Country.
The Ertzaintza and Basque institutions (including Bilbao City Council) have contracted Guardian Defense & Homeland Security, a company run by Ilan Arzoolan, a former Mossad agent. This firm has provided equipment, “live fire” training, and security services. Contracts totaled over €1.6 million across Basque entities.
The Ertzaintza has participated in Israeli-style training courses alongside other Spanish forces (e.g., Mossos d’Esquadra), focusing on urban security and counter-terrorism techniques. They have acquired Israeli equipment (body armor, surveillance tech from companies like Verint and ICTS, barriers, etc.) and maintain ongoing security cooperation.
For years, Israel has aggressively cultivated relationships with European police forces through security training programs. Companies like Israeli Tactical School, International Protection Services, and ISA Security Academy market themselves as premier counter-terrorism experts. Their instructors come from Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service. Their doctrine emphasizes aggressive tactics, crowd suppression, and treating dissent as a security threat. – OUT LOUD with Ahmed Eldin
While Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has positioned himself as a critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, calling for investigations and even suspending the EU-Israel association agreement, the institutional reality on the ground tells a different story.
The Spanish government may condemn Israeli atrocities in public statements, but its security apparatus maintains deep ties with Israeli military and security contractors. The training, the technology, the equipment — it all comes from the same system that commits the violence Sánchez claims to oppose.
This explains why the Ertzaintza behaved the way they did in Bilbao. They’re part of a security ecosystem that views Palestinian solidarity activists through the same lens as Israeli security forces.
It’s the same logic that allows far-right agitator Dani Esteve to publicly call for bombing the flotilla and lead demonstrations in Madrid with complete impunity. When the system views Palestinian solidarity as a threat to national security — a lesson learned from Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine — it will act accordingly.
– OUT LOUD with Ahmed Eldin
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