Not The First Time, Barcelona Suspends Relations With Israel

The Palestinian Red Crescent team received two ambulances and 85 trucks on Friday, November 24, loaded with aid from Egypt via the Rafah crossing. (Photo: Twitter/@PalestinineRCS)

JAKARTA - The Barcelona City Council has finally approved a declaration suspending relations with Israel until there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and until Israel "respects the basic rights of the Palestinian people." This decision was agreed upon on Friday, November 24.

The suspension of relations with Israel is not the first time Barcelona has done it.

In February 2023, former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau suspended relations between the city and Israel and the twin city agreement with Tel Aviv.

However, during this summer's election, Colau lost to socialist candidate Jaume Colomboni. In September, Colomboni restored diplomatic relations with Israel and the twin city agreement with Tel Aviv.

The declaration on Friday was filed by the left-wing party Barcelona en Comun led by Colau and supported by the Social Party led by Collboni, as well as the left-wing Separatist ERC party.

The declaration condemns all attacks carried out on civilians, both by Hamas and Israel, as well as "any collective punishment, forced relocation, systematic destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure as well as restrictions on electricity, fuel, water, food, and medical supplies for residents in the Gaza Strip."

According to a Barcelona-approved statement, the main obstacles to long-term peace are "residential and colonization of the Palestinian territories," as well as "discrimination of rights" of society.

Another important member of the Spanish national government, including former minister and current MP Ione Belarra, has called on Spain as a whole to cut ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

However, as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, November 25, it is not a government (Spain) position.

In contrast, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez paid a visit to Israel and Palestine to meet his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts on Thursday, November 23.

There, he criticized Israel's response to the Hamas attack on October 7, and called the situation in Gaza a "humanitarian catastrophe." He then urged Israel to "respect the lives of civilians at all costs," and said that the number of civilian deaths was unacceptable.

Belarra said Sanchez's visit seemed "ignoring mistakes" by Netanyahu and said he should have been in Brussels to lobby the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel in the same way that the bloc imposed sanctions on Russia following its attacks on Ukraine.

Meanwhile Sanchez said his mission was to lay the groundwork for peace negotiations.