The Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign affairs bureau on Thursday welcomed the decision of the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, to suspend all institutional relations with Israel, including the cancellation of the twinning agreement with the city of Tel Aviv.
In a statement quoted by the PA’s WAFA news agency, the bureau called on other cities to take similar steps, “given that this step puts pressure on the occupation government to stop all its violations and crimes against the Palestinian people, their land, sanctities, and rights, and to stop all its illegal unilateral measures that undermine peace opportunities.”
Colau on Wednesday announced that she is suspending all of the city’s ties with Israel, citing what she called “the repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions.”
She added that Barcelona will maintain relations with “Israeli and Palestinian entities that continue to work for peace and against apartheid.”
On Thursday, Tourism Minister Haim Katz sent a letter to his Spanish counterpart, María Reyes Maroto Illera, asking her to reverse Barcelona’s decision.
Barcelona’s announcement is the latest in a series of anti-Israeli motions that have been adopted on the regional and municipal levels in Spain in recent years.
In June of last year, Catalonia's parliament passed a resolution recognizing Israel as committing “the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people”, and calling on both Catalonian and Spanish governments to not render “aid or assistance” to Israel.
In 2018, the City Council of the Spanish town of Sagunto voted in favor of joining the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, declaring itself an “Israeli apartheid-free space.”
A week earlier, 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".
Prior to that, 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.
At the same time, nearly two dozen Spanish municipalities rescinded or suspended pro-BDS measures against the State of Israel.