The market hall and other fine places in Las Palmas. And death penalties for selected terrorists.

This morning I went to check out the Vegueta market here in las Palmas. En route I discovered Marks and Spencer - St Michael is ubiquitous.

Vegueta has a fine market hall.

The fish stalls make our Uppermill Market fish-man’s van display look rather inadequate.

And as ever, the fruit and veg stalls are wonderfully colourful. 

Nearby was the Teatro Pérez Galdos, the writer being a famous son of Las Palmas. (Our accommodation, coincidentally, is on Calle Pérez Galďos.) 

I couldn’t quite work out why the statue of the famous writer was without clothes. So it goes!

I also went by the Ilustrísimo Gabinete Literario.

Such a collectipn of fine buildings in this city! 

Apparently we are suffering today from a “calima”, a sort of dust storm from the Sahara. Mostly for us it just makes the distance very hazy and the air quality poor. We’ve seen quite a lot of people wearing masks today. 7I don’t know of that helps.

Menawhile, out in the wider world, Israel just passed a law to execute Palestinian detainees.

The bill stipulates "the death penalty for anyone who intentionally or negligently causes the death of an Israeli citizen out of racist or hateful motives and to harm Israel."Does it apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians under similar circumstances? No

The bill was devised by Itamar Ben Gvir, who wore noose-shaped lapel pins in the weeks before the vote. Ben Gvir was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and support for the Kach group, a terrorist organization under both Israeli and U.S. law.

One report I saw said it applied to anyone involved in terrorist attacks which denied the existence of the state of Israel. Now, what about denying the existence of the state of Palestine?

Here’s another thing: on Sunday Israeli police blocked Jerusalem's top Catholic leaders from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a centuries-old tradition to mark Palm Sunday.

And here’s something from George Galloway: “British soldiers in the Grand Mosque in Gaza 1917. We fooled the Arabs into believing that if they allied with us against Turkey we would give them unity and independence. But at the very moment we conquered Gaza we had promised it to an obscure group of European and American settlers. We betrayed Palestine. We betrayed the Arabs. We betrayed the Muslims. The source of everything that happened next.”

There we are!

 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!