Marches in Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid protest Israel's military campaign in Gaza
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Barcelona (AP): Hundreds of thousands of Italians and Spaniards marched in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid on Saturday against Israel's military campaign in Gaza in a show of growing international anger over the two-year-old war.
The protests in almost every major Spanish city had been planned for weeks, while the demonstration in Rome followed widespread anger after the Israeli interception of a humanitarian aid flotilla that had set sail from Barcelona in a bid to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.
The protests across southern Europe come as Hamas said that it has accepted some elements of a plan laid out by US President Donald Trump to end the war, which has left Gaza's largest city in famine and stirred accusations of genocide against Israel.
Rome's police said that 250,000 people turned out, while organisers said that 1 million attended, for a second straight day of Italian demonstrations. Italy already saw more than 2 million people rally on Friday in a one-day general strike to support the Palestinians in Gaza.
In Spain, officials said that 100,000 people marched in Madrid and another 70,000 filled downtown Barcelona. Organisers of the Madrid march raised attendance to 400,000, while organisers in Barcelona said that 300,000 took part.
Spaniards were also called by activists to march in Valencia, Sevilla, Malaga and other cities.
Smaller rallies took place in Paris, Lisbon, Athens and Skopje, North Macedonia, and in London and Manchester, England.
Protests in Rome criticise Giorgia Meloni
The protest in Rome that followed a route by the Colosseum was organised by three Palestinian organisations along with local unions and students.
At Piazza San Giovanni, protesters chanted and applauded the name of Francesca Albanese, an Italian who is the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and a vocal critic of Israel.
Opposition lawmaker Riccardo Magi, secretary of the centre-left Piu Europa (more Europe) party, who was among the marchers, took Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government to task for its refusal to recognise a Palestinian state, following the example of Spain, France, the UK and some other Western countries.
“Meloni cannot continue with this obscene victimhood: these are spontaneous demonstrations against the inaction and complicity of her government. She must acknowledge this and begin working diplomatically for peace,” Magi told Italian media.
Big rally in Barcelona
Spain has seen an upsurge of support for Palestinians in recent weeks while its left-wing government intensifies diplomatic efforts against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government. Protests against the presence of an Israeli-owned cycling team repeatedly disrupted the Spanish Vuelta last month, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the destruction in Gaza a “genocide” and asked for the ban of all Israeli teams from international sporting events.
People packed Barcelona's wide Passeig de Gracia, the city's main central boulevard. Many families turned out along with people of all ages, carrying Palestinian flags. Hand-held signs bore messages like “Gaza hurts me,” “Stop the Genocide,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”
More than 40 Spaniards, including a former Barcelona mayor, were among the 450 activists that Israel removed from the flotilla's boats this week.
While the protests will likely not sway Israel's government, protesters hope they could inspire other demonstrations and encourage European leaders to take a harder line against Israel.
Maria Jesus Parra, 63, waved a Palestinian flag after making an hourlong trip from another town to Barcelona. She wants the European Union to act against what she described as the horrors she watches on TV news.
“How is it possible that we are witnessing a genocide happening live after what we (as Europe) experienced in the 1940s?” Parra said. “Now nobody can say they didn't know what was happening.”
People in Madrid marched behind banners that read “Shame” and “Racist War, Free Palestine,” while chanting “Netanyahu (is a) Killer.”
Greek police believe a bigger gathering and march will take place Sunday to coincide with a pro-Israeli one. The two protests are separated by some 3 kilometres (2 miles) and police will be on hand to prevent the pro-Palestinian march to the Israeli Embassy, as as happened on previous occasions.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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