Israel denies entry to Jaume Collboni

BarcelonaIsraeli authorities have barred Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni from entering the country. He was scheduled to travel to Tel Aviv this Friday afternoon for an institutional trip during which he was scheduled to meet with mayors from the region.

Although the mayor's request had initially been approved, the Israeli government revoked Collboni's permit "at the last minute and without any justification," the city council said in a statement. The mayor and the rest of the delegation—made up of municipal technicians and journalists—were traveling to the Middle East at the invitation of the mayors of the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah.

The mayor's visit, which had received the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, included contacts with high-level Palestinian authorities, such as the Prime Minister of Palestine, Mohamed Mustafa, and other members of the executive branch. Among other things, it included meetings with the mayor of Bethlehem, Maher Nicola Canawati, and Issa Kassis of Ramallah. A meeting was also planned in Jordan with the mayor of Amman, Youssef al-Shawarbeh. The council also planned to visit B'Tselem organizations.who in July accused his government of committing genocide in Gaza– and Peace Now, and in Ramallah, the mayor was scheduled to participate in the inauguration ceremony for Barcelona Street in the Palestinian city. In addition, two floral offerings were planned at the respective tombs of the historic Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, and a visit to Yad va-Xem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

"The decision to prevent access to a delegation seeking dialogue is a hostile act," the city council said in a statement issued on Instagram, calling the gesture a "direct attack on freedom and diplomacy between cities." "The Israeli government seeks to isolate the Palestinian people and hide from the world the constant violation of human rights they suffer," it added.

For their part, Israeli immigration authorities assure that Collboni's visa application was rejected for having defamed Israel and for his alleged participation in a boycott in the country. In May, Barcelona City Council severed institutional ties with Israel and suspended its friendship agreement with Tel Aviv "until respect for international law is restored and the basic rights of Palestinians are respected."

Israel justified the veto by the City Council's decision to "boycott the State of Israel," according to diplomatic sources confirmed to ACN, who warn that this boycott "has consequences." Benjamin Netanyahu's government considers the plenary motion a "manifestation of a systematically hostile and inciting policy against Israel and its citizens" and maintains that "it is not acceptable that someone who acts to boycott Israel and sever ties can be considered a welcome guest," the same sources point out.

In response, the Spanish government has complained to the Israeli authorities through a call to the highest representative of the embassy—who has been the chargé d'affaires since Israel withdrew its ambassador from Madrid more than a year ago. The PSC also called on the European Union to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel, which Brussels has refused to revoke all and to note that Israel violates human rights in the Strip. PSC MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament, Javi López, has demanded that this preferential collaboration agreement with Tel Aviv be broken "until the massacre in Gaza ceases" and "international law is respected."

The Palestinian Authority's Foreign Ministry also expressed its discontent, maintaining that the "occupying power," referring to Israel, lacks the "power" to make this decision and interprets the veto as "part of the war of protracted protests against its Palestinian people" and against those who defend the rights of its citizens.

The veto against the mayor of Barcelona coincides with a context of international alarm over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the virulence of the Israeli military offensive in the enclave's capital. This Friday, the UN officially confirmed the hunger in Gaza City, where nearly one million people live in subhuman conditions awaiting Netanyahu's troops to take the city. The international community's voices condemning the impunity with which Israel besieges the Palestinian population have also intensified this week with the denunciation of the Israeli government's approval of the construction of 3,400 buildings in a settlement that divides the West Bank and makes a Palestinian state impossible.

Deterioration of relations

Jaume Collboni's first diplomatic gesture upon taking office at Barcelona City Council, which reestablished the twinning relationship with Tel Aviv and reversed the suspension imposed by his predecessor, Ada Colau, is a distant memory. Hamas attacks, just two months later, and Israel's subsequent response with the land, sea, and air offensive against Gaza—which has left more than 62,000 dead and sparked one of the most ferocious humanitarian crises of the century—have upended the Catalan capital's relations with Tel Aviv, which have continued to deteriorate.

At the end of November 2023, the City Council plenary suspended institutional relations with the current Israeli government—without affecting ties with Tel Aviv—and called for a "definitive ceasefire." However, a year later, a court annulled the plenary's declaration due to a lack of legal grounds. In another gesture to continue pressuring Netanyahu's government to respect Palestinian rights, in May 2024 Barcelona joined the official recognition of the State of Palestine—previously announced by the central government—and reiterated the call for a ceasefire.

The culmination of this deterioration came in May 2025, when the city council announced it was breaking the twinning relationship with Tel Aviv and severing relations with Israel. This resolution included the suspension of municipal contracting with Israeli companies, a ban on events, and accession. Collboni's trip to the Middle East, while including stops such as the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, was a clear gesture of support for Palestine and was intended to definitively seal Barcelona's alliance with Palestinian organizations and strengthen the city council's commitment to ending the siege of Gaza.