In Barcelona, one of the most important cities of Spain, Mayor Ada Colau announced that relations with Israel and the sister city protocol between Tel Aviv and Barcelona were suspended on the grounds of systemic discrimination (apartheid) against Palestine and violation of international law and human rights.
Responding to the signatures collected by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Catalonia region and the calls of left-wing political parties there, the Municipality of Barcelona announced that it had cut off official relations with Israel "to invite them to work for peace".
Barcelona Mayor Colau said that she sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, informing her that she had cut off relations with this country.
Speaking to the press with representatives of some NGOs, Colau said that "The Barcelona City Council has conveyed to Netanyahu the decision of suspending institutional relations with Israel until the Israeli authorities end the systematic violations of human rights against the Palestinian people and fully comply with the obligations imposed on them by international law and various resolutions of the United Nations."
Noting that the aim of Barcelona is to "break the silence and encourage this" of local institutions in other countries against Israel, Colau emphasized that they will "continue to work with Palestinian and Israeli organizations working for peace and to end systemic discrimination."
With its decision, Barcelona also suspended the sister city protocol it signed with Tel Aviv Municipality in 1998.
Colau said, "With more than 100 NGOs and more than 4,000 signatures collected from Barcelona residents, we were asked to break off relations with the state of Israel. We accepted this and temporarily suspended relations with Israel."
"Barcelona is a city that is committed to peace and always committed to bridges of cooperation," she added.
Emphasizing that criticisms against the Israeli state should never be perceived as discrimination against the Jewish population, Colau noted that their reaction was against a government, not a people or a religion.
