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(JTA) — Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau has introduced that the town is not twinned with Tel Aviv, citing claims that Israel is responsible of “apartheid,” in addition to “flagrant and systematic violation of human rights.”
Barcelona and Tel Aviv entered the connection in 1998 — when each cities collectively signed a “twin metropolis” settlement with Gaza Metropolis. Colau’s choice comes lower than a yr after Barcelona launched two linked campaigns — “Shalom Barcelona” and “Barcelona Connects Israel” to enchantment to Jewish and Israeli vacationers inquisitive about exploring their heritage. Final summer time, the town opened up the world’s first Michelin-starred kosher restaurant. .
The choice additionally comes lower than a yr after Barcelona suspended a twinning relationship with St. Petersburg in protest of to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Greater than 100 organizations and over 4,000 residents have demanded that we defend the human rights of Palestinians and for that reason, as mayor, I’ve written to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him that I’ve suspended quickly the institutional relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv,” Colau, a left-wing politician who has been mayor of Barcelona since 2015, mentioned at a press convention on Wednesday.
The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain condemned the choice, which it known as “refined antisemitism.”
In her letter to Netanyahu, dated Wednesday, Colau wrote that the petition from her constituents requested that her workplace “condemn the crime of apartheid in opposition to the Palestinian individuals, assist Palestinian and Israeli organizations working for peace and break off the twinning settlement between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.”
The proposal to finish the twinning relationship was delivered to the mayor’s workplace and the Barcelona Metropolis Council by a bunch known as Finish Complicity with Israel, which has allied itself with additionally aligns with different social organizations targeted on anti-racism, LGBTQ rights, and feminist advocacy. The proposal was initially on the agenda for a Jan. 27 plenary assembly of the council, however was postponed as a result of the controversy coincided with Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day. The controversy was rescheduled for Feb. 24, however teams supporting the proposal demanded a faster response from the mayor’s workplace.
The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain, the official consultant of the Spanish Jewish group, had spoken out not too long ago in opposition to the choice.
“We’re involved concerning the boycott marketing campaign you might be main beneath the slogan ‘Barcelona says no to apartheid,’” the group mentioned in a press release directed on the mayor. “Barcelona and Tel Aviv are open and welcoming societies, main cities that appeal to startup investments and tourism. We name on the town council to permit Barcelona to proceed to construct bridges of concord and keep away from selling a discourse of rejection and isolation.”
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