Barcelona’s city council on Friday adopted a declaration suspending relations with Israel until there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and until the country “respects the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people”.
This is not the first time that Barcelona has cut ties with Israel. In February 2023, then-mayor Ada Koljau suspended the city’s relations with Israel and the sisterhood agreement with Tel Aviv.
However, during this summer’s elections, Koljau lost the position of mayor to socialist candidate Žauma Koljboni, who renewed diplomatic ties with Israel and an agreement with Tel Aviv in September.
Friday’s declaration was presented by Koljau’s far-left party Barcelona en Commune, and was supported by Kolboni’s Socialist Party, as well as the left-wing separatist party ERC.
The declaration condemns all attacks on the civilian population, both by Hamas and Israel, as well as “all collective punishment, forced displacement, systematic destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, as well as the blockade of electricity, water, food and medical supplies for the population of the Gaza Strip.”
According to it, the main obstacles to lasting peace are the “occupation and colonization of the Palestinian territories” and the “denial of rights” to the people.
Other senior politicians, including former minister and current MP Jone Belaro, have called on Spain to also cut ties with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
However, this is not the position of the Government. On the contrary, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez traveled to Israel and Palestine on Thursday to meet with his counterparts there.
There, he criticized Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, calling the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian disaster,” calling on Israel to “respect civilian lives at all costs” and saying the civilian death toll was unacceptable.
