Barcelona cuts ties with Israel over Gaza massacres
On Friday, Barcelona’s city council voted to sever institutional relations with the Israel regime and suspend its friendship agreement with the city of Tel Aviv “until international law is respected and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed.”
The decision, which includes around twenty measures, was supported by the ruling Socialist Party in Barcelona, several left-wing parties, and pro-independence groups.
It calls for cutting institutional ties with the “current Israeli government” and suspending the friendship pact signed on September 24, 1998, between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.
Barcelona’s Socialist mayor, Jaume Collboni, said the “level of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, along with repeated Israeli government attacks in recent weeks, makes any relationship between the two cities unsustainable.”
Among other measures included in the decision, some beyond the municipality’s authority, the city council called on the board of the Barcelona trade fair to bar Israeli government pavilions, “arms companies, or any sector benefiting from genocide, occupation, apartheid, and colonialism against the Palestinian people.”
A similar recommendation is under consideration for the Port of Barcelona, advising it not to receive ships involved in transporting arms to Israel.
It is not the first time Barcelona has suspended ties with the regime of Benjamin Netanyahu. In February 2023, former mayor and social activist Ada Colau also decided to suspend relations with Israel and cancel twinning agreements with Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has urged all European Union member states to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and impose an arms embargo on Israel.
“It is unacceptable to remain silent in the face of violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and the killing of more than 50,000 people,” Sánchez said, stressing that there must be no “double standards” between Ukraine and Gaza.
Spain, which recognized the State of Palestine a year ago, renewed its call for an immediate halt to the war in Gaza and the urgent entry of humanitarian aid.
Source: Marzieh Rahmani