More than 30 participants at Madrid's Festival of Ideas demanded that organizers drop Allianz as a sponsor because the company holds Israeli bonds. The festival withdrew the sponsorship. The decision, alongside a similar fight in Granada, has sparked a fierce argument in Spain over who decides what cultural events can fund, host and say, EL PAÍS reported on October 3, 2026.
The Madrid episode is one of several to unfold in less than a month. Rapper Macklemore was dropped from the opening slot on Ed Sheeran's tour after shouting “Free Palestine!” Actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder were arrested in New York while Benjamin Netanyahu attended the UN General Assembly. Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor released their film NAZA online for free after it won an award at the Venice Film Festival; the Israeli government branded them traitors and threatened to revoke their citizenship.
The Sponsorship Fight
The Festival of Ideas faced the prospect of collapse before organizers gave way. Political scientist Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán signed the letter that led to Allianz's removal. Communicator Nerea Pérez de las Heras, author of Fantasma (Alfaguara, 2026), signed it too. She rejected the charge of inconsistency. “We are accused of being inconsistent to paralyze us with the excuse that 100% ethical work and consumption under capitalism is impossible when we point to a company like Allianz,” she said.
Valerio Rocco, director of Madrid's Círculo de Bellas Artes and one of the festival's organizers, described the position of cultural institutions. “When they face attacks and accusations, withdrawn support and unimaginable pressures, the vulnerability of the cultural sector is felt very clearly, even physically,” he said.
The City Council and Madrid's regional government are among the festival's organizers. Mariano de Paco, culture councilor for conservative regional premier Isabel Díaz Ayuso, called the dispute a matter of “censorship and cancellation.” “We condemn any ideological interference both in artistic activities and in their funding,” he said. “We deplore that ideological debates substitute persuasion and reasoning with pressure and intimidation.” Ayuso invited Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz to join any forum in Madrid she wished.
Granada, Boycotts and a Double Standard Charge
The Cultura Alh festival in Granada rescinded Harwicz's invitation for denying a genocide in Gaza. Manifestos for and against the decision keep circulating. Signatories including Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Cristina Rivera Garza and Alejandro Zambra argued: “Organizing a peaceful boycott is not censoring. Criticizing is not censoring, protesting is not censoring.” A rival letter, signed by Fernando Savater, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and Manuel Valls, among others, answered: “Defending freedom of expression only for those who think like us is not defending it: it replaces the free confrontation of ideas with ideological selection.”
Filmmaker Uri Rosenwaks, a former director of the Israeli Forum of Documentary Directors, told the newspaper Israelis feel the chill. “If I belonged to another minority nobody would have done this to me. In the cultural sphere cancelling Jews is justified,” he said. “We Israelis have become toxic people.” He added that if Netanyahu is re-elected, “There will be a mass emigration.”
Luis Salazar of Rescop, part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, described an organized campaign. “These movements are not spontaneous or random; there is coordination with working groups across Europe,” he said. He pointed to a letter from 50 Israeli documentary filmmakers backing boycotts of their country's institutions. He also invoked the apartheid-era precedent in South Africa and the exclusion of Russian intellectuals and athletes.
The Russian comparison surfaced elsewhere. Choreographer Nacho Duato objected to the planned appearance of Israeli company Batsheva at Madrid's Teatros del Canal, scheduled for October 15 to October 17, 2026. The company didn't respond to the newspaper's inquiry. Its own accounts say Netanyahu's government funds it. Duato said the regional government “uses it to whitewash the genocide,” adding: “If they end up dancing, then let them dance, but this needs to be discussed.” He acknowledged that he spends much of the year dancing in Russia, which the article described as currently invading Ukraine.
Eurovision and the Public Broadcaster
Russia was expelled from Eurovision in 2022 under the competition's statutes, after it invaded Ukraine. This year marks the fourth anniversary. The European Broadcasting Union didn't take the same step against Israel. Spain and Ireland withdrew from the contest in protest. Spain's public broadcaster RTVE skipped the 2026 Eurovision song contest, publishing a message calling for peace and justice for Palestine instead.
The article's sources frame the cause differently. Itziar Ruiz-Giménez Arrieta, professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said, “Cultural voices, by virtue of their fame, are the only ones managing to get a small foothold on the political-media stage.” She also said political gestures by Pedro Sánchez had to be read against commercial collaboration between European and U.S. elites and Netanyahu's government. The article reports that the Israeli army has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians since 2023, a figure it says Israeli commanders have acknowledged, in an offensive the UN described as genocidal.
Why This Matters: The row raises questions about public money and public institutions. A regional government co-organizing a festival, a state broadcaster skipping a European contest and private sponsors pressed to cut ties all show who sets the terms of cultural life. Madrid authorities cast the fight as one over censorship. The boycott's backers cast it as integrity. From a perspective that prizes democratic accountability, the open questions are what standards publicly funded culture applies, whether they’re applied consistently, and who answers for them. The Russia comparison cuts both ways in the reporting. The article also records Jewish and Israeli artists saying they're excluded by birthplace regardless of their views. How institutions reconcile that with free expression will shape trust in them well beyond Spain.