Complaint against Pilar Rahola for complicity in the genocide in Gaza archived

BarcelonaThe complaint against Pilar Rahola for her statements in favor of Israel and her actions in Palestine will not proceed. The Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor's Office has decided to archive it following the pre-trial proceedings it ordered on April 13. The complaint, filed by two militants of the Socialist Youth Organization (OJS), was for crimes of incitement to hatred and complicity in the genocide in Gaza, but the public prosecutor's office considers that there is not enough evidence to continue investigating the journalist. The decision is not subject to appeal, according to the resolution dated this Monday to which ARA has had access.

"In the case at hand, none of the reported expressions contain a direct call to carry out acts against the Palestinian population," concludes the Prosecutor's Office after the preliminary investigation commissioned to the Mossos' Central Unit for Hate and Discrimination Crimes. "There is no evidence that she instigates or encourages the commission of discriminatory acts, and even less so, violent ones," it adds regarding the possibility of a crime of incitement to hatred.

The complainants had also provided public and media positions of Rahola in which—they claimed—she had "publicly denied, trivialized, and justified" the genocide. On this point, however, the public prosecutor's office notes that, despite the systematic killings and the denunciations by governments and international organizations—including the United Nations—, "there is no record of any body with jurisdiction to do so having declared the existence of a genocide that the complainants claim Mrs. Rahola denies".

That is to say, according to the Prosecutor's Office document, the fact that no court has yet ruled that what Israel is doing against the Palestinian population is a genocide constitutes an "insurmountable obstacle" to attributing to the journalist the crime of denial, trivialization, or glorification of a genocide, punishable under the Penal Code with sentences of between one and four years in prison.

Rahola reaffirms her stance on Israel's "right to defense"

In a statement released to the media by her defense, Rahola herself celebrates the dismissal and ensures that it was the outcome she expected because the complaint, in her view, "had no legal basis." "It responded to the desire to censor free opinion, neutralize dissent, and impose single-mindedness," she states.

In this sense, the also writer reaffirms her "positions" on "the existence and the right to defense of Israel." A right to defense that, for three years, has been the argument used by Tel Aviv to justify its bombings and massacres in Gaza. "The prosecutor's office's final dismissal proves that I exercise this free thought within democratic parameters and that the law protects me," she concludes.

The two OJS militants filed the complaint against her in February, after Rahola reported them for throwing red paint at her during an event in La Garriga, a case that is currently in the investigation phase. In the complaint, they pointed out that Rahola's interventions regarding what is happening in Gaza are not "disinterested" —they pointed to "significant economic benefits and recognitions" received from Israel and Zionist entities– and that they could not be protected under the exercise of freedom of expression either. Assertions that the Prosecutor's Office has not shared.