Ending friendship agreement with Israel… Barcelona City Council officially announces severance of ties with Tel Aviv

Barcelona City Council officially announced the severance of institutional ties with Israel, including the termination of the friendship agreement with the Tel Aviv municipality, in protest against the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The Council’s statement stated that the resolution also includes the suspension of the “Friendship and Cooperation Agreement” signed on September 24, 1998, between Barcelona and Tel Aviv, until respect for international law and humanitarian law is restored and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed.

The resolution received the support of a majority in the council, with backing from the ruling Socialist Party, as well as left-wing parties and groups supporting Catalan independence.

It included approximately 20 points, most notably severing all ties with the current Israeli government.

Barcelona’s Socialist mayor, Jaume Colbone, said, “The scale of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, and the recent attacks carried out by the Israeli government, make it impossible to maintain any institutional relationship with it”.

In its recommendations, the Council also called for refraining from hosting pavilions representing the Israeli government at Barcelona exhibitions, and rejecting the participation of arms companies or entities that profit from war, occupation, or apartheid.

The recommendations also included urging the Port of Barcelona not to receive ships suspected of transporting weapons to the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as urging the municipality’s contractors not to deal with companies that violate international humanitarian law.

This isn’t the first time Barcelona has suspended its relations with Israel, having previously suspended them in November 2023, and in February of the same year, before the outbreak of the genocide.

On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a post on X marking the first anniversary of his country’s official recognition of Palestine that they would raise their voices more forcefully than ever against the situation in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues to commit genocide.

The Spanish Prime Minister, called on Thursday, for impose sanctions against Israel.