Izquierda Unida and Podemos have been absent from the five minutes of silence called in memory of Maya Villalobo, the young woman from Seville who died in Israel during the Hamas attack. In a tribute called in Seville, the city of her paternal family, the left has avoided appearing in the photo along with the rest of the municipal Corporation and the relatives of the Spanish-Israeli, who was carrying out compulsory military service near the Gaza Strip. The gesture joins what happened in Madrid, where Más Madrid and the PSOE have organized a parallel minute of silence “for each and every one of the victims”.
The Seville City Council, governed by the PP, had called for five minutes of silence “as a sign of rejection and solidarity for the death of the young woman from Seville and all the victims of Israel”. Although they included the rest of the municipal Corporation, the two councilors of Con Podemos-IU avoided being in the photo because the call did not take into account the suffering of the other side.. “The pain and suffering of so many decades of the Palestinian people has been ignored due to a situation of occupation and apartheid by an oppressive government such as Israel,” said the spokesperson for the municipal group, Susana Hornillo..
Maya Villalobo had permission to be in Seville this Thursday to celebrate her father's birthday. “But the birthday is going to be a funeral,” said José María Villalobo, Maya's uncle and brother of the father, who is already in Israel, where the young woman's funeral will be held.. Although she lived there with her mother, Maya spent long periods of time in Seville with her paternal family, which is why the City Council wanted to make this tribute. Despite the gesture, Hornillo was present at the rally and took advantage of the Control and Inspection Commission to justify his absence in the photo.. Before asking his question, he wanted to express his “deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Maya Villalobo, who has been murdered,” in addition to his “solidarity with the Palestinian people.”.
The left also wanted to mark distance from the rest of the parties in Madrid. After observing a minute of silence dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attacks, the leader of Más Madrid, Mónica García, asked for a second tribute for “each and every one of the civilian victims”. The alternative had the support of the PSOE, which also put its deputies on their feet to support the initiative. The president of the Assembly, Enrique Ossorio, tried to interrupt the alternative minute of silence and recalled that it would be a time that would be deducted from the interventions, although he did not take any measure or sanction, reports Ignacio Calleja.
“It was unconscious to have her on the front line”
Maya's family members were also present at the minute of silence held in Seville.. Her paternal uncle José María Villalobo described it as “absurd” and “tremendous unconsciousness” that the young woman, who was doing mandatory military service at the Nahal Oz base, was on the “front line” in Gaza.. The young woman was completing her mandatory military service and had published photographs with her Army colleagues until shortly before her death.. In Israel, military service is mandatory for all young people and, in the case of women, they must serve a minimum of 24 months.
Maya liked to travel and was, in the words of her family, a teenager “eager to see the world.”. Also “in love with Spain”, a country that she knew not only through her relationship with Seville, but also through her visits to other destinations. The family has thanked all the people around them, dismayed by what happened. After losing track of him, his closest circle had joined the father, the Biology professor at the University of Seville Eduardo Villalobo, in trying to ask for help through social networks. After several days investigating what happened, Foreign Affairs confirmed his death this Wednesday.