A photo of collapsed buildings, smoke and debris filling the streets
Spanish La Liga club, Athletic Bilbao has declared their in support for Palestine, marking what many are calling a significant humanitarian gesture
Ahead of their La Liga fixture vs RCD Mallorca at San Mamés, the club will host a short ceremony and display messages aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinian refugees.
The club of Black Stars striker Inaki Williams made this declaration in a social media post sighted by GhanaWeb on Friday, October 3, 2025.
Read the full post from Athletic Bilbao:
Athletic stands with Palestine. Let’s stop the genocide
Honey Thaljieh, Athletic Club 125th anniversary ambassador, a group of Palestinian refugees in the Basque Country, and representatives from UNRWA will receive a show of support at San Mames before Athletic Club vs RCD Mallorca kicks off
As announced on 21 September, the Athletic Club Foundation has launched a project in collaboration with UNRWA Euskadi, which began in October, to help Palestinian refugee children in Syria. Through this international initiative, around 8,000 vulnerable children will receive physical education classes in 16 schools managed by UNRWA.
In order to highlight Fundazioa’s support for the Palestinian refugee community, the club has organised a small recognition ceremony that will take place before Athletic Club vs RCD Mallorca at San Mames on Saturday evening.
Honey Thaljieh – former captain and co-founder of the Palestinian women’s national football team and an Athletic Club 125th anniversary ambassador due her to work in gender rights and campaigns for peace – a group of eleven Palestinian refugees in the Basque Country, and representatives of UNRWA – the UN agency that assists and protects the Palestinian refugee community – will walk on to the San Mames’s pitch so Athletic fans can show their solidarity by giving them a standing ovation.
At the same time, the stadium’s video scoreboards will display the message that the Athletic Club Foundation wants to send to the Palestinian refugee community: ‘Athletic Palestinaren alde. Stop genozidioa’ (Athletic stands with Palestine. Stop the genocide).
Official presentation of the project during Thinking Football
The Athletic Club Foundation will officially present the UNRWA project to the press at a working breakfast, where there will also be a press screening of Honey Thaljieh’s chapter from the film ‘Les rebelles du foot 2’ (The Rebels of Football 2), directed by Gilles Pérez and Gilles Rof and featuring Eric Cantona as a presenter. The documentary was previously screened at the 2015 Thinking Football Film Festival.
This special screening will take place at the San Mames press room on Friday, 10 October, at 10:00 AM. Afterwards, Honey Thaljieh, Bárbara Ruiz Balzola, representing UNRWA Euskadi, and Galder Reguera, the Athletic Club Foundation’s director of strategy, will talk about the UN project for Palestinian refugee families in Syria, which is sponsored by the Athletic Club Foundation.
Furthermore, Honey Thaljieh will participate in a discussion during the evening session of Thinking Football on Saturday, at 20:00 CEST, after the screening of short films ‘Girls Move Mountains,’ ‘My Very Own Footballer,’ and ‘How the Cossacks Discovered Football’.
JE
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