At the National University of the South (UNS), located at Alem 1200, a true political and academic scandal unfolded. During the university day, left-wing activists from the Tesis XI group —the youth wing of the Socialist Workers' Party (PTS)— raised a Palestinian flag on the main flagpole instead of the national Argentine flag.
The incident occurred amid an atmosphere of international tension due to the conflict in the Middle East, where Israel is responding militarily to the terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place on October 7, 2023. The action was immediately denounced as an outrage against national symbols by various local academic and political sectors.
From the official Tesis XI Instagram account, the activists justified the act by stating: "We won't be the generation that looks the other way while a genocide is taking place. We fill universities across the country with Palestinian flags denouncing the genocide in Gaza."
The interventions were not limited to the flagpole: the group painted graffiti and put up posters against Bahía Blanca mayor Federico Susbielles, whom they accused of "supporting the genocide in Gaza" for having met with the Israeli ambassador, Eyal Sela. Among the repeated slogans was the antisemitic phrase "Free Palestine from the river to the sea", a motto that directly promotes the disappearance of the State of Israel.
