Collboni now proposes that Barcelona again suspend relations with the Israeli government.

BarcelonaA reversal in Jaume Collboni's international policy. As he has already stated The Newspaper And as ARA has confirmed, the mayor of Barcelona will bring to next week's plenary session a proposal for the city to once again interrupt relations with the government of the State of Israel and temporarily repeal the twinning relationship with Tel Aviv until there is a definitive ceasefire in Gaza. The mayor of the Catalan capital thus rectifies one of the first decisions which he took upon taking office, when he repealed the suspension of relations approved by Ada Colau's government.

However, two months after that decision, the PSC did support a proposal from the Commons that urged the City Council to interrupt relations with the Israeli government until there is a definitive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Sources from the municipal government stressed at the time that the interruption of relations is exclusively with the Netanyahu government and does not affect Barcelona's twinning with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. In any case, that decision was suspended for justice in a decision that the City Council has discussed.

Now, however, the proposal that Collboni will take to the plenary session does propose temporarily repealing the friendship and cooperation agreement that the socialist mayor Joan Clos signed in 1998 with Tel Aviv and Gaza. At that time, it was part of the Oslo Accords, the peace process that had begun a few years earlier. This Wednesday, municipal sources stressed that the agreement was de facto Inactive since the beginning of the conflict, and no political action or initiative has been taken regarding Tel Aviv.

In addition to joining efforts to convene a peace summit, the text that the municipal government will present to the plenary for debate—and which needs the votes of other groups to move forward—proposes suspending relations with the Israeli government and the twinning agreement with Tel Aviv, but also commits to not entering into any municipal contracts with human rights organizations.

Against antisemitism

The proposal also supports international recognition of the State of Palestine, calls for a review of Israel's association agreement with the European Union, and maintains that "the occupation and colonization of the Palestinian territories, as well as the denial of the most basic rights of the Palestinian population, are the main obstacles to achieving one." It also condemns "any form of antisemitism" and demands the "unconditional and safe" release of the hostages held by Hamas.

In the explanatory statement of the proposal, the municipal government justifies bringing this decision to the plenary session now by citing the months-long blockade of humanitarian aid and the obstacles preventing it from reaching the Gaza Strip. All of these are acts that, the text notes, "are extremely serious and potentially punishable, through the UN, before the International Court of Justice."