The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, during an event last June. Albert García
The government of Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni announced on Friday that it is resuming the twinning relationship with Tel Aviv, which his predecessor and partner on the city board, Ada Colau, suspended a few months ago. With the announcement, the new mayor takes a decision that he was against and which he assured would be reversed if he won the elections and governed. The announcement was made by International Relations Commissioner Pau Solanilla, who stated that the mayor had signed a decree lifting the temporary suspension of relations with Tel Aviv.
Regarding the break in relations that Colau declared at the time, the current government has stated that, apart from the mayor’s letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, this break was neither formally made nor included in the decree. “Barcelona’s relationship with the Israeli government is non-existent, it goes beyond what is declarative. What citizens ask of us is to be useful, we do urban diplomacy. “We want Barcelona to be an open city again,” he argued, reporting that the current executive has spoken to all institutional actors: the Palestinian embassy, Tel Aviv, the Israeli consulate, but not the municipal groups of the city council. “Barcelona declares itself the capital of the Mediterranean and has to speak to all actors, and Tel Aviv represents the progressive values of Israel, it was the protagonist of more than 30 demonstrations against the government’s policies,” he said, recalling that Colau’s decision was political , with the exception of the Commons, was widely rejected by opposition groups.
Solanilla also clarified: “In case anyone might think that this decision harms the support of the Palestinian people, but nothing could be further from the truth.” “Barcelona has more than ten active projects in Palestine, focused on impact people’s lives and we will continue to do so,” and has announced that Collboni’s first institutional trip will be to Palestine before the end of the year, as other mayors have done. from Barcelona like Pasqual Maragall. And he added that the timing of the decision-making “coincides with the start of the international agenda and because autumn is approaching, when the city will see many international events, the Smart City Expo, a Euro-Mediterranean forum with a meeting of foreign ministers in November.” “It’s a good time to normalize and get Barcelona back to where it belongs.”
Colau announced the break at the beginning of February. The city of Barcelona severed ties with Israel because of the government’s actions, not an allegation against “a people, a community or a religion”. The then mayor justified this in an emergency appearance. The announcement set off chain reactions and the PSC took pains to label it a “very serious error” and “unilateral”. In addition, to express protest against the regime of subjugation in Palestine, the city council decided to cancel the twinning that has established a fraternal bond between Barcelona and the city of Tel Aviv for 25 years. “We hope that it is only temporary,” said Colau and sharply criticized the government of Benjamin Netanyahu: “This apartheid situation is intolerable.”
The dust raised by Colau’s decision was enormous. With statements of support and opposition, manifestos, demonstrations by the Barcelona Israeli community, votes on texts in committees or an extraordinary plenary session where Colau was left alone. Even after the elections, when Colau was no longer mayor, it was revealed that a Barcelona court was investigating her after two complaints about the suspension of Barcelona City Council’s relations with Israel accused her of a crime of subterfuge. In her decision, the head of the Investigatory Court No. 5 of Barcelona agrees to accept for processing the complaint filed by lawyers Francesc Jufresa and Ferran Grases, as well as the complaint filed by Acción y Comunicación Sobre Oriente Medio Oriente (ACOM).
At the end of February, on a Friday when an ordinary and an extraordinary plenary session were held to discuss the issue, Colau maintained the deadlock on relations and the suspension of the partnership, despite losing three votes and being left alone. All parties opposed his decision, including the PSC as his partner. and ERC abstained from voting. The first vote was the 4,000-signature citizens’ initiative submitted by several organizations, calling for the suspension of ties with Israel and the twinning signed by Mayor Joan Clos in 1998 uniting the Catalan capital with Tel Aviv and Gaza. The popular initiative was rejected by a majority: Junts, Ciutadans, PP, Valents and the PSC voted no. The ERC abstained and BComú supported the initiative, which was not approved. In this plenary session, Councilor Laia Bonet declared that if the Socialists won the local elections, they would reverse the situation.
What influences the most is what happens closer. To make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter