The Madrid City Council has rejected a draft resolution calling for a boycott of Israel shortly after a Spanish court suspended another city’s motion on the matter, JTA reported Monday.
In last week’s vote in Madrid, the far left AhoraMadrid party, the council’s second largest with 20 seats out of 57, was alone in voting for the motion that it submitted, the ACOM watchdog group reported.
The motion had declared that Madrid is a “space free of Israeli apartheid.”
Separately last month, reported JTA, the 1st Tribunal of Alicante in southeastern Spain suspended the draft motion on Israel passed by the council of San Vicente del Raspeig that also declared the city’s adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
San Vincente del Raspeig has a population of about 57,000.
Legal and lobbying actions by ACOM and other groups have resulted in the scrapping, annulment or suspension of over 30 motions to boycott Israel by Spanish municipalities in recent times.
In August, two municipalities in Spain – Villarrobledo and Sagunto – rescinded their adhesion to the campaign to boycott Israel.
Nearly two dozen other Spanish municipalities have rescinded or suspended pro-BDS measures against the State of Israel in recent months.
At the same time, despite many victories over the BDS movement in Spain, the country still has dozens of municipalities supporting BDS, more than in any other EU member nation.
In June, councilors in the city of Pamplona, the capital of the Navarre province, called on the Spanish government to stop its arms trade with Israel and on their municipality to declare Israeli officials as "persona non grata" until Israel stops its "oppressive policy against the Palestinian people".
A week earlier, the city of Oviedo, the capital of Spain's Asturias region, cancelled a concert of Israel's NK Orchestra, citing political reasons. Oviedo also cancelled an Israeli ballet performance.