Barcelona mayor denies having a twin in apartheid Israhell

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Barcelona mayor severs ties with twin city of Tel Aviv, citing Israeli 'apartheid'
https://www.jta.org/2023/02/08/global/barcelona-mayor-severs-ties-with-twin-city-of-tel-aviv-citing-israeli-apartheid

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau has announced that the city is no longer twinned with Tel Aviv, citing claims that Israel is guilty of "apartheid," as well as "flagrant and systematic violation of human rights."

Barcelona and Tel Aviv entered the relationship in 1998 — when both cities jointly signed a "twin city" agreement with Gaza City. Colau's decision comes less than a year after Barcelona launched two linked campaigns — "Shalom Barcelona" and "Barcelona Connects Israel" to appeal to Jewish and Israeli tourists interested in exploring their heritage. Last summer, the city opened up the world's first Michelin-starred kosher restaurant.   .

The decision also comes less than a year after Barcelona suspended a twinning relationship with St. Petersburg in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"More than 100 organizations and over 4,000 citizens have demanded that we defend the human rights of Palestinians and for this reason, as mayor, I have written to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him that I have suspended temporarily the institutional relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv," Colau, a left-wing politician who has been mayor of Barcelona since 2015, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain condemned the decision, which it called "sophisticated antisemitism."

In her letter to Netanyahu, dated Wednesday, Colau wrote that the petition from her constituents requested that her office "condemn the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, support Palestinian and Israeli organizations working for peace and break off the twinning agreement between Barcelona and Tel Aviv."

The proposal to end the twinning relationship was brought to the mayor's office and the Barcelona City Council by a group called End Complicity with Israel, which aligns with other social organizations focused on anti-racism, LGBTQ rights, and feminist advocacy. The proposal was initially on the agenda for a Jan. 27 plenary meeting of the council, but was postponed because the debate coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The debate was rescheduled for Feb. 24, but groups supporting the proposal demanded a quicker response from the mayor's office.

The Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain, the official representative of the Spanish Jewish community, had spoken out recently against the decision.

"We are concerned about the boycott campaign you are leading under the slogan 'Barcelona says no to apartheid,'" the group said in a statement directed at the mayor. "Barcelona and Tel Aviv are open and welcoming societies, leading cities that attract startup investments and tourism. We call on the city council to allow Barcelona to continue to build bridges of harmony and avoid promoting a discourse of rejection and isolation."

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Barcelona mayor sued after proposing Tel Aviv boycott
Ada Colau was immediately condemned following her decision to de-twin her city
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/barcelona-mayor-sued-after-proposing-tel-aviv-boycott-56I5qgC3G49kCqhz423llk

Barcelona's mayor is being sued over her decision in February to sever the Spanish city's official relations with Israel, including its twinning agreement with Tel Aviv.

The Lawfare Project announced on Tuesday the filing of the lawsuit against the Catalan capital's leftist mayor, Ada Colau, on behalf of the local charity Barcelona Institute for Dialogue with Israel.

"It asserts that Ms. Colau acted beyond the scope of her authority by infringing on the Spanish government's power to conduct foreign policy and violated applicable legal procedures," the U.S.-based legal fund said in a statement.

Colau cited "repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions" in justifying the decision to boycott the Jewish state, which ended a 24-year formal friendship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.

This decision drew immediate condemnation from the Israeli government, pro-Israel groups and local Jewish organizations, with Brooke Goldstein, executive director of the Lawfare Project, saying that the suspension "represents a total misuse of the legal process to engage in a bigoted and partisan campaign, rather than a legal decision within the scope of the Mayor of Barcelona's power."

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, blamed Colau's decision for antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti scrawled on the city's largest synagogue on Monday, the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"The irresponsible decision of the mayor of Barcelona to unilaterally sever relations with the State of Israel has put the Jewish community in the city in real danger," said Goldschmidt.

"Every additional case of vandalism and bloodshed as a result of this unfortunate choice will be on her hands," the rabbi added.

The vandals spray-painted "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" on the exterior wall of the Maimonides Synagogue, which also drew condemnation from the local Jewish community.

"Three people have painted a slogan that Arab radicalism has traditionally used to demand that the Jewish people living in Israel be thrown into the sea," the statement said.

The day after the Barcelona mayor's decision, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the mayor of Madrid, offered his city as a replacement for Tel Aviv in the "twinning" agreement. The mayor of the capital called his Barcelona counterpart antisemitic and offered Tel Aviv's Mayor Ron Huldai "Madrid's commitment to democracy and freedom," ABC reported.

"It would be an honor to be twinned with Tel Aviv," the mayor said.