The Administrative Dispute Court of Barcelona annulled the institutional declaration approved a year ago by the Municipal Plenary Assembly, by which relations between the Municipality of Barcelona and the State of Israel were suspended until there have a definitive ceasefire in Gaza.
The decision was contested by Action and Communication on the Middle East, an organization which considers that this resolution violates “ideological freedom”. The court allowed the appeal of this entity and annulled the resolution, which was approved with the votes of the PSC, the Comuns and the ERC. The city council has already assured that it will appeal the court’s decision.
The judgment, to which elDiario.es had access, considers that the municipal resolution contains several statements “contrary to the law”. He also assures that the municipal council’s agreements “are not a simple innocuous or symbolic decision” and maintains that the council affirms “without any motivation” that Israel illegally occupies the Palestinian territories.
This, for the Court, sends a “clearly negative message of alienation and hostility towards Israel and its citizens, who seem to be considered the culprits”. Likewise, he considers that the council does not have the power to adopt international policy agreements or to modify the legal regime of public procurement.
This latter statement refers to a commitment that was included in the resolution, whereby the city council committed to drafting a clause that would prohibit hiring any company that collaborated in the genocide in Gaza.
This resolution, voted on in plenary on November 23, 2023, was promoted by the Commons and constitutes the latest episode in a controversy that began a few months earlier. In February 2023, the mayor at the time, Ada Colau, had already decided to suspend relations with Israel, as well as the twinning with Tel Aviv. But he did it unilaterally.
Not having the necessary votes to do so, Colau opted for the municipal decree. This gesture, which, although approved by various entities of civil society, provoked the rejection of various municipal groups.
In fact, one of the first things Collboni did as mayor was to restore relations and twinning with Israel. He did so on September 1, but a month later the events of October 7 would take place, which sparked the war in Gaza. This changed the council’s mind, which decided to suspend relations again on November 23. Unlike the first time, this time the decision was put to a vote.
Action and Communication on the Middle East is not the first association to decide to challenge the council’s resolution to cancel the links. The Association of the Barcelona Institute for Dialogue with Israel has already tried it when the initiative came from Colau. But in this case, the court rejected the appeal.
