{"id":76347,"date":"2026-09-16T12:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/76347"},"modified":"2026-09-16T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:51:25","slug":"allianz-halts-sponsorship-of-spain-fest-over-israel-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/76347","title":{"rendered":"Allianz halts sponsorship of Spain fest over Israel row"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Madrid: Allianz has suspended its sponsorship of one of Spain\u2019s top cultural events after celebrities threatened a boycott over the German insurance giant\u2019s ties to Israel, organisers said on Tuesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAllianz is today the world\u2019s largest buyer of Israeli state bonds and, therefore, an essential financial backer of the ongoing genocide,\u201d the celebrities said in a statement, referring to the Gaza war launched after Hamas\u2019s 2023 attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n

They said they would snub the annual Festival of Ideas in Madrid unless it committed to \u201cnot accepting economic support, in this or future editions, from companies that collaborate with the State of Israel in the destruction of the Palestinian people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The festival cannot \u201ccontribute to the whitewashing of the economic actors which allow extermination, occupation and apartheid to take place\u201d, added the more than 20 figures from literature, music, philosophy and cinema, including Oscar-nominated Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.<\/p>\n

The festival announced in a statement that it had agreed with Allianz to suspend the sponsorship of the event, due to run for four days from Thursday and see acclaimed British writer Zadie Smith take part.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/strong>\u00a0Ed Sheeran\u2019s entire opening lineup quit in support of Macklemore<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBoth parties agree that the festival should continue to be a space dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, open debate and the diversity of opinions without any external controversy diverting attention from its programme, participants or audience,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Spanish media carried a separate Allianz statement quoting the firm as saying: \u201cWe firmly reject the accusations made against our company and we stand by our responsible business practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palestinian cause enjoys widespread support in Spain, whose Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has been one of the most virulent critics of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Last week, Spain was among 12 countries which announced sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as settler attacks on Palestinians increase there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Madrid: Allianz has suspended its sponsorship of one of Spain\u2019s top cultural events after celebrities threatened a boycott over the German insurance giant\u2019s ties to Israel, organisers said on Tuesday. \u201cAllianz is today the world\u2019s largest buyer of Israeli state bonds and, therefore, an essential financial backer of the ongoing genocide,\u201d the celebrities said in a statement, referring to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Pakistan"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allianz-1024x555.jpg",1024,555,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"frkhokhar@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/author\/frkhokhargmail-com"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":16,"name":"Pakistan","slug":"pakistan","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"category","description":"All about Pakistan","parent":0,"count":5476,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":16,"category_count":5476,"category_description":"All about Pakistan","cat_name":"Pakistan","category_nicename":"pakistan","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76349,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76347\/revisions\/76349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}